From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility and the forthcoming novel The Lincoln Highway, a story 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 In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a … 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.
more
Too bad “engaging” and “great plot” aren’t included in the above categories. I loved the plot, and loved the characters. A wonderful read.
This book is wonderful. Original, completely unique with characters that you will fall in love with. The author’s use of the language is absolutely intoxicating. I’ve recommended it to all my friends and they continue to thank me.
The author has a gift with language that frequently stopped me dead as I reread a passage with my mouth agape! I loved the characters and marveled at the conditions in which the gentleman lived in exile or house arrest, however you choose to call his status. Great read.
Wonderfully written and more than worth your time to read and get caught up with the character.
A pure joy to read! I want to meet the Vount, AND the author! This book is now in my all time favorites, along with Bel Canto.
Such a good book from beginning to end. Loved the characters, the writing was amazing. No objectionable language, tremendous vocabulary. I highly recommend this book.
a most elegant book.
Can’t recommend this book enough. You even learn something about history painlessly. Great characters, great setting just a great book.
Although it took me almost three weeks to read this book, it turned out to be one of my favorites.
The pace starts off kind of slow, gradually picks up, then becomes a tense and suspenseful page-turner at the end. But this is also one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in years, where I stopped often to read a paragraph aloud to my husband, because it so perfectly and eloquently captured a universal moment in the human experience. And with so much humor throughout.
At the start of the book, it is early in the 1920s under the new Soviet regime, and Count Alexander Rostov has been placed under house arrest at Moscow’s Swanky Hotel Metropol. Although he must remain indoors — he lives a full life, forging lifelong friendships, transitioning successfully from the life of a born aristocrat to a hotel server, and foster parenting a young girl who is unceremoniously dumped into his care. Though stuck in one location, Rostov witnesses the changes brought by civil war, Stalin’s five-year industrialization plans, the Gulags, and Khrushchev’s ascending star — all from his vantage point in a hotel restaurant. He is introduced to the secret and hidden locations at the hotel (which come in useful years later), and devises creative ways to use a few valuable heirlooms to secure both a warm home and to open up new opportunities in faraway places. From the early 1920s until the mid 1950s, he applies his upbringing as a gentleman to make the lives of those around him easier and more enjoyable. Rostov is truly a wonderful main character, showing how much one human can impact the lives others, regardless of limitations.
An original premise with interesting characters and a truly delightful hero.
Great read as long as lots of details don’t bother you. Loved the main character and the ending was not as expected.
One of the best books I’ve read of late. A genuinely-original plot filled with interesting characters. You wonder how such a “prison” as the hotel could be so liberating.
Probably the best book I have read this year. Wonderful characters and mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine. Loved it!
A very unusual book that is very hard to put down.
Loved this book! Was sad when it ended. Marvelous characters, including the hotel which comes to life in this story. I hope there will be a sequel.
A wonderful book that was a page turner. Was difficult to put down until it was finished. Wonderful characters that appeared throughout the book. Highly recommend this book.
One of the most unique books I’ve read in a long time. I wasn’t sure I would find a novel about a man confined to the Hotel Metropol in Moscow to be all that entertaining, but it is a real page-turner! Highly recommended!
Read it with a cup of tea…
The most charming book I’ve read this year…no, in many many years! Can’t recommend this strongly enough (and as a Russian refugee, I can say that I strongly related all the way through the book…).
Throughout the life stages of the character as prisoner, he and those he cares for and other helpers enable him to live prosperously at an historical time of great upheaval and potential emotional costs and spiritual rewards.
One of the best books I have ever read. Did not want to quit reading.