Health & Fitness
Barrett Booknotes -- Meet One of Our Favorite Authors!
Jess Walter will be at Barrett Bookstore to discuss his latest novel, Beautiful Ruins.
On Thursday, April 4 at 7:00 pm, Jess Walter will be at Barrett Bookstore to discuss his latest novel, Beautiful Ruins. The book was selected as Barrett Bookstore’s Spring Book Club Pick.
The story begins in 1962, on a sun-drenched patch of the Italian coastline, when Pasquale, a young inn keeper, looks out over the Ligurian Sea and sees an apparition: a tall, thin woman, approaching him on a boat. Fast forward fifty years, when an elderly Pasquale shows up in California, searching for Dee Moray, the mysterious woman he met decades earlier and never forgot.
When writing Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter was struck by how people, even if they're not physically present or have been lost to us, can still be a driving force in our lives.
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“My mother was dying at that time and she had never been to Italy,” said the author in a recent interview. “I had fallen in love with these cliffside towns, so I started writing about a woman about my mother's age arriving in Italy in the early '60s … Then I wrote this young Italian man, channeling my sense that there was a larger world out there. Once I had these two characters, Pasquale and Dee, I didn't know what they would do, but I had this idea that maybe the only perfect romance is the one that is unfulfilled. I set out to see if that was true.”
The story that unfolds from this premise spans half a century and is a rich tapestry of intersecting lives, paths not taken, unforgettable characters, and diverse locations. Beautiful Ruins is a widely acclaimed novel that has the feel of an old-time movie, but the literary depth of a modern classic.
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Jess Walter is the author of six novels. He was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award for The Zero and winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel for Citizen Vince.
His short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper's, Mc Sweeney's, Playboy and other publications. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.
Please call Barrett Bookstore to reserve a seat. (203-655-2712) Refreshments will be served.
