Beautiful Ruins

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction and Best Solo Narration, 2013

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning 50 years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist, and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion - along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

©2012 Jess Walter (P)2012 HarperCollins Publisher

Ah, how refreshing!

What made the experience of listening to Beautiful Ruins the most enjoyable?

The narration by Edoardo Ballerini was just amazing, he has a true gift and brought the story to life.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Ruins?

Finally, an ending worth raving about! Seems I have been in a lull with good, unpredictable and satisfying endings but this did not disappoint!!

Which scene was your favorite?

Visualizing Porto Vergogna, the author did a great job and the cover was very helpful too.

Wonderful in all aspects

I have not been so drawn in to a story in a long time. I could not wait to learn where each character was going and held my breath as the story unfolded.

Sweet, Tinsel Town Fairy Tale of days gone by

Could be a movie, about the movies and the train wrecks the whole business leaves in its wake. The characters are full of spicey differences and the name dropping references are fun for those of us who even know who they are anymore. The visuals of the Italian seaside villages are dreamy and the narration is perfect in every way. A Medateranian vacation. Make it a film, I will go. Its just a zen kind of story, drink tea, relax and listen.

From Italy to Hollywood and back.

If you could sum up Beautiful Ruins in three words, what would they be?

Nostalgic visit to Tuscany

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Pascuale's relationship with D when he first meets her at the hotel

Any additional comments?

The narrator was wonderful. So many characters with so many dialects and accents.

Beautifully Written and Produced

Unfortunately I was slow to grasp the significance of this wonderful book. I read the reviews but was not moved to purchase. However, once I started listening I simply could not stop. Beautiful Ruins is exceptionally well written and the narrator was superb. Traversing back and forth through decades and with the myriad of characters is a literary journey worth taking. Credit or no credit. Love endures. Life lessons are learned. Bravissimo!

Absolutely fabulous

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

I loved the multiple story lines, and the way they all eventually interwove. Walter did an amazing job keeping everything moving and tying it all in without any loose ends.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters and how they were all so real. People trying to do their best in life (well, all except Michael Dean), but all of them were scarred and broken in some way. Just like the most interesting people in your own life.

Which scene was your favorite?

I loved a lot of the scenes, but I think my favorite part was the recap where Walter broke even the minor characters. It was brutal, but so affecting.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I don't think I had any extremes, although I was caught up in it ever minute. There were definitely funny parts and truly heart-wrenching parts as well, but throughout it all, there was a sense of realism and the desire of the characters to just keep going. It truly was a reflection of real life to me.

Italy realized

Great story telling. Loved the ebb and flow of the time periods, all eventually coming together with a brilliant ending.

A Beautiful Story

If you could sum up Beautiful Ruins in three words, what would they be?

lives worth living

What other book might you compare Beautiful Ruins to and why?

Freedom by johnathon franzen

characters are well developed, complex, flawed
-deals with family, love/hate, choices

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

his reading brought the story to life. He moves effortlessly between English and Italian which adds European flair to the story

Who was the most memorable character of Beautiful Ruins and why?

Each character is well developed with entire chapters for each one. Michael Dean is a amoral, shallow, selfish sociopathic narcissist aka hollywood producer and alot of fun

Any additional comments?

the author took 15 years to write this book and it shows. Every word is perfect, almost like prose

a simple story over many years

I happen to love stories that span decades and follow multiple points of view. I enjoyed the way the story played out from Italy to Hollywood. As the chapters went on I loved guessing how each character would relate to the others. There is a simple beauty to the way each one's ordinary life affects the other.

Great story compilation

This is my first audible book, and the reader was phenomenal going between languages and characters. That may seem monotonous, but there are so many characters and timelines in this book that it really was a marvelous feat. I also feel that it had, maybe, too many characters. As if Jess Walters wanted to see if he could tie together so many stories at once. Not to ruin the book at all, there is a nice summary at the end, but it seems like a rush job to get to the bottom of the story lines and no real time table unlike the rest of the book. Overall I am impressed and ready for more from Mr. Walters.