As a bookseller, I sometimes get flummoxed when a customer makes a
request such as 'I'm just looking for a good book. What can you
recommend?' Then all these wonderful titles jumble around in my head and
I come up with nothing but 'Uh, go take a look at Jackie's Corner'
{a display at TC Lodo}. Well, I think I've found my 'go to' suggestion for customers eager for
that special good book. It has to be Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. It's the kind of book you take on a trip and
remember more about the novel than the vacation itself.
Set in Cinque Terre, the scenic, cliff-side
dwellings hugging Italy's northwest Mediterranean shoreline, the novel
begins in 1962 when a beautiful American actress arrives by boat in need
of a room at the local inn. This less than majestic inn is not on the
main tourist route and has the innkeeper, Pasquale, wondering if there
must be some mistake. Mistake or not, Pasquale and the actress strike up
a fast friendship and share an incident that alters their lives for the
next 50 years.
Beautiful Ruins is one of those rare novels that you
can recommend to nearly everyone. I know I will.
--Pete
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