Product Description

On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol.

But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely.

While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. And with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef and a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure and purpose.

Editorial Reviews

[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself. ― Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year

A comic masterpiece . . . very funny, tender and as laughably accurate an account of the dismal nature of life in Soviet Russia as one could hope for . . . Quite apart from the ingeniously ludicrous plot and the acutely drawn characters, what adds to the joy of this book is the precision of Towles’ style. Again and again he conveys exactly the right impression with a deliciously surprising choice of words . . . a sheer delight. -- William Hartson― Daily Express

A work of great charm, intelligence and insight. -- Nick Rennison― Sunday Times

No historical novel was more witty, insightful and original --Sunday Times, Culture Magazine

Elegant sentences, wonderful characters and inventive storytelling . . . This is everything a novel should be: charming, witty, poetic and generous. An absolute delight. ― Mail on Sunday

This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don’t miss it ― Chris Cleave

I just reread A Gentleman in Moscow ... It's a wonderful book at any time, and this time it brought home to me how people find ways to be happy, make connections, and make a difference to one another's lives, even in the strangest, saddest and most restrictive circumstances. -- Tana French ― Good Housekeeping

There is so, so much to love in this book as we keep company with the endlessly entertaining Count . . .[This] novel is wistful, whimsical, and wry and elegantly captures that most apposite of lessons: 'By the smallest of one's actions, one can restore some sense of order to the world'. Brilliant― Sunday Express

A Gentleman in Moscow is a tale abundant in humor, history, and humanity, with a poignant message about time passing. That Towles also makes this rollicking good fun is no mean feat. ― Sunday Telegraph

WINNING . . . GORGEOUS . . . SATISFYING . . . TOWLES IS A CRAFTSMAN ― New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Amor Towles

Born and raised in the Boston area, Amor Towles graduated from Yale College and received an MA in English from Stanford University. Having worked as an investment professional in Manhattan for over twenty years, he now devotes himself full-time to writing. His first novel, Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of 2011. The book was optioned by Lionsgate to be made into a feature film and its French translation received the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald. His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, published in 2016, was also a New York Times bestseller and was ranked as one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, the St. Louis Dispatch, and NPR. Both novels have been translated into over fifteen languages.

Mr. Towles, who lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children, is an ardent fan of early 20th-century painting, 1950s jazz, 1970’s cop shows, rock & roll on vinyl, obsolete accessories, manifestoes, breakfast pastries, pasta, liquor, snow-days, Tuscany, Provence, Disneyland, Hollywood, the cast of Casablanca, 007, Captain Kirk, Bob Dylan (early, mid, and late phases), the wee hours, card games, cafés, and the cookies made by both of his grandmothers.