Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Porto Vergogna is a spec of an island in Italy where The Adequate View is located. Pasquale Tursi whose father died just recently inherits this isolated hotel.

The ambitious Pasquale is working on his minuscule beach when he realizes that The Adequate View has a surprise guest! A beautiful American actress who is terribly sick landed on the young man's turf.

50 years to the future in the city of angels (LA), Claire Silver is on the brink of quitting her job when an old Italian guy and a 30-year-old man shows up at work.

In the hopes of encountering a good movie concept this time, Claire decides to hold on a bit longer. When her boss Michael Deane arrives, he is instantly in terrible shock upon seeing this old Italian guy.

The four of them takes a journey (literal) that will soon define who they are and how their lives turn out to be! 

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This book is an explosion of flavors. I got Italian/American culture, 60's celebrity gossips, humor, wit, midlife crisis, riveting and heavy drama, frustrated writer, porn addiction, plastic surgery PLUS so much more! You can tell that this seasoned author has had a lot of experience in life, either that or he's just an excellent narrator of other people's comic tragedies. I'd prefer to believe the former.

It took a while before I finished Beautiful Ruins, maybe it's because it was something far from what I usually read. I loved the book, there were boring parts but oh the nostalgia and catastrophe rammed in one interweaving story. It is so diverse and unexpected.

No wonder Emma Roberts and Taylor Swift decided to read it too.


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