Beautiful Ruins is a fascinating and
magical novel set between the 1960s Italy and present day Hollywood.
On a remote part of Italian coastline
called Porta Vergogna, a young man is determined to run a reputable
hotel, which will attract American tourists. However, the hotel that
he grew up in and inherited, which is called Hotel Adequate View, is
not quite a luxury establishment. When a beautiful young american
actress arrives at his hotel by boat, Pasquale thinks this is the
beginning of his dreams. Then, he finds out that the actress is dying
and has been sent here by the producers of the Cleopatra film, in
which she was due to star.
The actress is Dee Moray and Pasquale
is captivated by her. Despite their language barriers the two hit it
off well and Pasquale will do anything for her. Fifty years later
Pasquale turns up at a Hollywood studio looking for the beautiful
actress who stayed in his hotel in 1962. We then see the story
unravel and have to work out what happened in the meantime. There are
a lot of surprises in this book and I particularly liked the way
that each character seemed to have an equal amount of time devoted to
them.
I really enjoyed this story and found
myself completely hooked. It is filled with humour, despite the
problems faced by most of the characters. There is a lot going on in
this book, but I didn't at any point feel lost or confused. I
absolutely loved the description of the setting in Italy. It is a
real roller coaster of a read that I didn't want to put down.
This is a wonderful book, it is
romantic, moving and compelling to read. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Penguin for sending me a
copy to review.
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