Beautiful ruins

Title:

Beautiful ruins

Author:

Walter, Jess, 1965- author.

Ballerini, Edoardo, 1970- narrator.

Summary:

The story begins in 1962. On the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies a tall, thin woman approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, an American starlet, and she is dying. The story begins again today when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studios back lot, searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

General Note:

Unabridged.

Compact discs.

Duration: 13:00:00.

Physical Description:

10 sound discs (13 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Genre:

Audiobooks.

Local Note:

Audio Editions

Subject Term:

Hotelkeepers -- Italy -- Fiction.

Motion picture actors and actresses -- Fiction.

Americans -- Italy -- Fiction.

Author(s):

Ballerini, Edoardo, 1970-

Publisher:

HarperAudio,

Publication Date:

2012

ISBN:

9780062268365

Publication Information:

[New York] : HarperAudio, p2012.

Call Number:

CDB WALTER

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002738683	Adult Fiction Books on CDs	WALTER	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
33607002690850	Adult Fiction Books on CDs	WALTER	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

The story begins in 1962. On the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies a tall, thin woman approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lote"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 fifty 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 unforgettable characters. 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.

Author Notes

Jess Walter was born on July 20, 1965. He graduated from Eastern Washington University. Before becoming an author, he worked as a journalist. His work has appeared in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He has written one nonfiction book and several novels. His works include Every Knee Shall Bow, Over Tumbled Graves, The Zero, and Beautiful Ruins. His novel, Citizen Vince, won the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. He was the co-author of Christopher Darden's 1996 bestseller In Contempt.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

An elderly Italian man searches for the American actress he saw 50 years earlier during the filming of the movie Cleopatra. Walter (The Financial Lives of the Poets) portrays an incredibly complex chronicle of contemporary American life in a global world in this descriptive novel of love, hope, greed, careers, and life. Edoardo Ballerini's (2012 Audie Award, The Land of Laughs) ease with the Italian language and his ability to mimic the speech of Americans uncomfortable with the tongue add to the ambiance and credibility while also pulling listeners into the story. Ballerini's calm, quiet tone and realistic yet varied male and teen voices allow listeners to discriminate easily among characters. VERDICT Highly recommended. ["The pop culture references and wistful tone will please Nick Hornby fans and build Walter's following. Not to be missed," read the review of the Harper hc, LJ 4/1/13.-Ed.]-Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.