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.
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Beautiful prose and engaging characters, wry humor.
This beautifully written book is one I am
Savoring as I would hot fudge on a sundae or the char on a good steak.
Wonderful
I was eager to read Amor Towles novel A Gentleman in Moscow after reading rave reviews from my Goodread friends and enjoying the opening pages through the First Look Bookclub. I loved the writing and tone of those first pages. When I got my hands on a copy I read it in three days and was in happy tears at the end.
Count Alexander Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, Member of the Jockey club, and Master of the Hunt is a Former Person, a member of the aristocracy slated for execution but for having his name linked to a 1915 revolutionary poem. Count Rostov is instead placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in the heart of Moscow. It is June 21, 1922. The Count is 33 years old. It is his luckiest day.
He will not return to his luxury suite stocked with priceless heirlooms and beloved books; he is moved into an empty 100 square foot room, former servant quarters in the attic. The Count chooses a few items to take with him. And when I read these following lines, I knew their truth from having moved many times and carried ‘things’ that brought a sense of home with them:
“…we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience…allowing memories to invest the with greater and greater importance…Until we imagine that these carefully preserved possessions might give us genuine solace in the face of a lost companion.
But of course, a thing is just a thing.”
I found myself marking passage after lovely and insightful passage that elucidate the characters and our common experience.
The Count adapts to his new reality, mastering his circumstances. He takes a job as the head waiter in the hotel restaurant. He is befriended by Nina, a whimsical nine-year-old girl whose parting gift is a universal pass key to all the hotel rooms. Nina grows up, then leaves her daughter Sophia with the Count to follow her husband sent to the Gulag. The child is ignored by the police only because there was doubt about her patrimony. A Soviet official hires the Count to educate him in the culture of the West, and over fifteen years they develop a mutual respect. And Sophia grows to become an accomplished pianist. (Hear the music of the novel here.)
As the world the Count knew and loved is dismantled under the Bolsheviks, “who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased.” The Count’s university days friend Mishka has been struggling, asking, “What is it about a nation that would foster a willingness in its people to destroy their own artworks, ravage their own cities, and kill their own progeny without compunction? ” Mishka answers his question with his realization that self-destruction was not an abomination, but Russia’s greatest strength, “We are prepared to destroy that which we have created because we believe more than any of them [The British, French or Italians] in the power of the picture, the poem, the prayer, or the person.”
Sophia asks the Count why he returned to Russia from Paris. His only answer is that, “Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol.” And the last pages of the novel become comedy, a happy ending, a righting of things knocked over in the skirmish, “an essential faith that by the smallest of one’s actions one can restore some sense of order to the world.”
You may think a novel about thirty-two years living in the Metropol Hotel would be dull and without interest. The novel is episodic, skipping from one important time to another, but new people enter the hotel and affect the Count’s life. Read the author’s comment on the structure of the novel at http://www.amortowles.com/gentleman-moscow-amor-towles/gentleman-moscow-qa-amor-towles/
But I was mesmerized, charmed by the Count, drawn in by the slow revelation of his past and enticed by his plans for his future.
A wonderfully, charming book by an excellent writer.
This story was amazing, I’m still thinking about it months later. Highly recommended!
This was a wonderful read
What a treasure! I was enchanted from the beginning and fully engaged all the way through. The reader on Audible is delightful and brought the character to life. It made driving a pleasure even in heavy traffic to hear the voice of the narrator and the story unfold. I was just slightly disappointed in the ending but not enough to reduce my star rating from 5 stars.
A person of wit and intelligence who always manages to come out on top regardless of the odds against him.
One of my all time favorites.
Beautifully written, touching, original book. Hated to come to the end.
This is one of my top 10
This book is not just about a Count exiled to spend his remaining year’s in a hotel in Moscow but also about the people who come into his ife and the importance of the friendships he creates and how these friends benefit him .
An absolutely wonderful character study!
It reminds me of the way Jane Austin writes, with wonderful observations of characters and an interesting story of the life after the Bolsheviks took over and turned lives upside down.
I loved so many things about this story. I really enjoy historical fiction, so this book fit the bill. The characters were well developed. It has intrigue, with unexpected twists and turns. If I had to describe it in one word I would have to say, elegant. With so many raunchy, bloody mysteries out there now, this story as a pleasure to read. A refreshing change.
Has become one of my top ten of all time. Simply great. Elegant, purposeful, a lesson in living a meaningful life regardless of circumstance.
One of the best books I’ve read in years. Never dull, lots of humor but not ha, ha. Not a predictable ending. Loved it.
Another charming book from this author. Loved the courtly manners and dialogue and the three main characters. Allows you to see that even a truncated life can be rich and expansive, and ever surprising. Life affirming and joyous.
I always dread having books recommended to me, but for this recommendation I was grateful. It’s a delightful book, and very entertaining.