Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012)

 

Beautiful book manages to intertwine the lives of  WWII soldiers, residents of small fishing village in Italy and Hollywood actors, directors and others. The various characters tell their story jumping around  three time periods: post WWII Italy, the time of the filming of Cleopatra in the early 1960s in Italy and current day Hollywood.

One of the main characters dreams of running a hotel in this small village that is only accessible by boat. He wants to build a tennis court out on a somewhat flat outcropping. But he has never seen tennis played and didn't realize that the balls fly out of the court all the time and for his court they would land in the sea. He falls in love with an American actress comes to stay at his hotel, possibly by mistake. Later he tries to find out what has happened to her. We get cameo appearances by Liz Taylor & Richard Burton. Just a touching book.