A Gentleman in Moscow

Yes, everything you've heard about A Gentleman in Moscow is true; if I had my way, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be my dad. Beginning in 1922, Towles tells the story of a Russian count under house arrest in the Moscow Metropol Hotel, and follows his charmed (yes, really!) life for the next 30 years. The Count is an extraordinary fellow, with charisma, smarts, and kindness in excess, and it's pretty hard not to fall in love with him. He becomes the head waiter at the hotel, he makes lifelong friendships, he matches wits with the greatest (and most feeble) minds of the time, and does a little intrigue on the side. He teaches us that home is where you make it and family comes in the most surprising of configurations. This is just a delightful book that delivers a wonderful character study, a thrilling ending, and a giant warm spot to your heart. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

In 1922 Moscow, Count Alexander Rostov is declared a non-person and sentenced to live his remaining days in the Hotel Metropol — or he will be shot by the Red Guard. Rostov's banishment includes moving from his grand suite to a remote attic room. Nevertheless, Rostov is undaunted, and life in the elegant Metropol provides him friendships, love, and purpose. His adventures in confinement are comic, enchanting, and heartwarming even as the ever-present threat of the Soviet state lingers over the inhabitants of the hotel. Rostov observes that other countries exile their citizens to other places, but Russia exiles its people to Russia. Amor Towles has written a tragic comedy of gentle power; it’s charming, harrowing, and ultimately triumphant. I was sorry to leave Hotel Metropol. Recommended By Kathi K., Powells.com

I am in LOVE with A Gentleman in Moscow! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! Allow the magic of Amor Towles to transport you to Count Rostov's rich and vibrant world at the Metropol Hotel. Charming and elegant, bringing so many smiles to my lips and some tears to my eyes, I was delighted from cover to cover. And you will be too! Recommended By Adrienne C., Powells.com

Charming from start to finish, A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles’s story of a Russian aristocrat sentenced by the Bolsheviks to a lifetime of house arrest in the Metropol Hotel, is witty, philosophical, and subtly political. The almost insuppressible Count Rostov spends his captivity reading, forging deep and diverse friendships with the hotel’s staff and patrons, serving as head waiter in its famous Boyarsky restaurant, and even raising Sofia, the orphaned daughter of an old friend. Through Rostov’s keen observations, Towles’s novel relays the shifting currents of Soviet Russia, its tragedies and successes, with all of the solicitousness, elegance, and charisma of the captivating gentleman at its center. Recommended By Rhianna W., Powells.com

The mega-bestseller with more than 1.5 million readers that is soon to be a major television series.

“The novel buzzes with the energy of numerous adventures, love affairs, [and] twists of fate.” — The Wall Street Journal

As this “irresistible” (O, the Oprah Magazine) second novel by Amor Towles opens, in 1922, a Russian Count in his early thirties is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to spend the rest of his life in a small attic room in a luxury hotel near the Kremlin. Unexpectedly, the Count’s reduced circumstances provide him entry to a much larger world of emotional discovery as he forges friendships over the following three decades with the hotel’s other denizens, including a willful actress, a shrewd Kremlinite, a gregarious American, and a temperamental chef. When fate suddenly puts the life of a young girl in his hands, he must draw on all his ingenuity to protect the future she so deserves.

"Towles gets good mileage from the considerable charm of his protagonist and the peculiar world he inhabits." The New Yorker

“Transfixing, full of colorful characters…this finely composed new novel by Amor Towles stretches out with old-World elegance.” The Washington Post

“Irresistible…as lavishly filigreed as a Fabergé egg, gleams with nostalgia for the golden age of Tolstoy and Turgenev.” O, The Oprah Magazine

Amor Towles was born and raised in the Boston area. He graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University. An investment professional for more than 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. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.