The Book Mistresses​​

"FROM THE MOMENT IT OPENS - on a rocky path of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a day dreaming young inn keeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on boat - Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a dazzeling, yet deeply human roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriuosly inventive and constantly surprising - a story flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to improbable dreams."