{"product_id":"beautiful-ruins-a-novel-isbn-9780061928123","title":"Beautiful Ruins: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eKirkus \u003c\/em\u003e\"Best Book of the 21st Century\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller \u003cem\u003eThe Financial Lives of the Poets \u003c\/em\u003ereturns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet: the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 . . . and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Why mince words? \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Ruins \u003c\/em\u003eis an absolute masterpiece.” —Richard Russo\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A ridiculously talented writer.” —\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat 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 \u003cem\u003eCleopatra\u003c\/em\u003e 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, \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/em\u003e is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"It’s got all the perfect ingredients for a beach read: romance, old Hollywood, mystery and, of course, a beautiful Italian setting.\"  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLindsey Kupfer, Page Six Deputy Editor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Combines satisfying, old-fashioned storytelling with a modern sensibility.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBecky Aikman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A high-wire feat of bravura storytelling.... You’re going to love this book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHelen Schulman, New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jess Walter has already proven that he’s one of our great comic writers, a cerebral postmodernist, and a savvy plotter of thrillers. Now he has his masterpiece, Beautiful Ruins, an interlocking, continent-hopping, decade-spanning novel with heart and pathos to burn, all big dreams, lost loves, deep longings and damn near perfect.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDavid Daley, Salon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Walter has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors. He has crafted a novel with pathos, piercing wit and, most important, the generous soul of a literary classic.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSteve Almond, Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An absolute masterpiece.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Richard Russo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A great getaway of a novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBeautiful Runs\u003c\/i\u003e is itself a showcase for Walter’s outrageous literary gifts in virtually every genre and style. . .No wonder critics have been outdoing each other with superlatives. . .” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNashville Scene\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[An] enchanting novel. . . Sweeping effortlessly back and forth between Italy and current-day Hollywood, and between various modes of storytelling, Walters builds a world that won’t soon let you go.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePaula McLain, author of The Paris Wife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] high-wire feat of bravura storytelling. . . . [Walter’s] mixture of pathos and comedy stirs the heart and amuses as it also rescues us from the all too human pain that is the motor of this complex and ever-evolving novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A beautiful narrative . . . This writer is a genius of the modern American moment.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“His masterpiece . . . an interlocking, continent-hopping, decade-spanning novel with heart and pathos to burn, all big dreams, lost loves,  deep longings and damn near perfect.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Walter is a very, very funny writer and can do Hollywood satire with the best of them. But this is also a novel with a live, beating heart, full of sympathy for its characters and a gut wisdom…You’ll want to explore these Ruins.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It is a powerful and lush book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSelma Blair, the New York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A novel with pathos, piercing wit and, most important, the generous soul of a literary classic. . . . Walter has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Beautiful . . . A shining, imaginative tale . . . \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e shows novelists how it is done.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Plain Dealer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A literary miracle.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMaureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“His [Walter’s] characters are long-suffering, prone to failure and sometimes at death’s door. But the verve and enthusiasm of this novel, from its let’s-go-everywhere structure to the comedy in the marrow of its sentences, are wholly life-affirming.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Entrancing…Walter’s turns of phrase are as brilliant as his plot twists, making for a compelling, fun read.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e is satisfying and delicate, a spectacular story of love, frustration, selfish intent, and the patience of the human heart.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Within a page-turner of a plot, these triumphantly vulnerable characters leap off the page to take up permanent residence in your inner life. The effect is so powerful that to be untouched by \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e might well be like having no inner life at all.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A marvel, an absolute gem of a beach read that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Walter vividly draws a world both tender and cutthroat, where ambition battles reality, daydreams fight doldrums and sometimes win.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eInterview\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lyrical, heartbreaking, and funny . . . Walter closes the deal with such command that you begin to wonder why up till now he’s not often been mentioned as one of the best novelists around. \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e might just correct that oversight.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKansas City Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A monument to crazy love . . . Walter [is] a believer in capricious destiny with a fine, freewheeling sense of humor.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Expertly scratches the seasonal itch for both literary depth and dazzle.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A novel shot in sparkly Technicolor. . . . reimagines history in a package so appealing we’d be idiots not to buy it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Well-constructed…quirky and entertaining tale of greed, treachery, and love.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This is a blockbuster, with romance, majesty, comedy, smarts, and a cast of thousands. There’s lights, there’s camera, there’s action. If you want anything more from a novel than Jess Walter gives you in \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/i\u003e, you’re getting thrown out of the theater.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up and creator of Lemony Snicket\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[N]othing less than brilliant, a tour de force that crosses decades, continents, and genres, to powerful and often hilarious effect....A masterful novel of love, loss, and hard-won hope that satisfies on every level.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBen Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A brilliant, madcap meditation on fate. . . . Walter’s prose is a joy-funny, brash, witty and rich with ironic twists. He’s taken all of the tricks of the postmodern novel and scoured out the cynicism, making for a novel that’s life-affirming but never saccharine.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888647270629,"sku":"NP9780061928123","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061928123.jpg?v=1730229525","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/beautiful-ruins-a-novel-isbn-9780061928123","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}