A Gentleman in Moscow | Amor Towles

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A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW | Amor Towles | BUY BOOK


Review by Sophie Devarenne

Set in a post-revolution Russia, A Gentleman in Moscow follows the life of Count Alexander Rostov, a man sentenced to house arrest in a high-society Moscow hotel for his life as an aristocrat under the fallen monarchy.

The reader falls in love with Count Rostov’s steadfast wit and charm as he witnesses the radical change of the Russia he knew from inside the walls of the Hotel Metropol. A Gentleman in Moscow boasts an unforgettable cast of characters, an endlessly vivid setting, and beautiful writing—it’s a heartfelt story anyone can enjoy.


ABOUT THE BOOK

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility, a novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel—a beautifully transporting novel.

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series

“Perhaps the ultimate quarantine read . . . A Gentleman in Moscow is about the importance of community; the distance of a kind act; and resilience. It’s a manual for getting through the days to come.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

Sophie Devarenne is a bookseller at our State Street location. Her favorite book at the moment is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). She says the story is a perfect mix of captivating writing, suspense, and introspection with a cast of remarkably real and lovable characters.