{"product_id":"beautiful-ruins-a-novel-isbn-9780061928178","title":"Beautiful Ruins: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestseller—Jess Walter’s “absolute masterpiece” (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author): the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 and resurfaces fifty years later in contemporary Hollywood.\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. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/em\u003e is 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 | \u003cp\u003eFrom the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter's \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/em\u003e is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of \u003cem\u003eCleopatra\u003c\/em\u003e to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, \u003cem\u003eBeautiful Ruins\u003c\/em\u003e is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—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 Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888647172325,"sku":"NP9780061928178","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061928178.jpg?v=1730229525","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/beautiful-ruins-a-novel-isbn-9780061928178","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}