This book was really charming. A lonely inn-keeper on the rocky side of Italy's famed Cinque Terre schemes ways to make his father's run down pensione into a world-class hotel. A 1960s film actress with a terminal diagnosis seems to be the possible solution to his loneliness and his ambitions. Fast-forward to the future to an unsatisfied production assistant, a has-been/never-was frontman, and a guy just trying to pitch a movie. Somehow these elements all come together and work. And none of the characters are cartoonish or unbelievable (except maybe the jerk movie producer who has had one too many procedures on his fountain of youth face). But again, it never seems too over the top. All the scenarios his just the right notes.
It would be giving away too much to talk about the plot, so I'll say that the writing was really well done. In the end, the characters work through very real world issues and and are able to figure out some way to live with the lives they have been given and the choices they have made. They recognize their own agency in the outcome of their lives and it's refreshing to not have everything too bottled up, too satisfactory in the end.
4/5 Stars.
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