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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Historical fiction

A Gentleman in Moscow

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Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to A Gentleman in Moscow!

by Amor Towles

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Quick take

This book's pleasures are in the details. It is layered with delicious, minute observation, so that you never want to skip over passages.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Slow_Build

    Slow build

  • Illustrated icon, International

    International

  • Illustrated icon, Critically_Acclaimed

    Critically acclaimed

Synopsis

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.

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Get an early look from the first pages of A Gentleman in Moscow.

A Gentleman in Moscow

21 June 1922

APPEARANCE OF COUNT ALEXANDER ILYICH ROSTOV BEFORE THE EMERGENCY COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT FOR INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Presiding: Comrades V. A. Ignatov, M. S. Zakovsky, A. N. Kosarev

Prosecuting: A. Y. Vyshinsky

Prosecutor Vyshinsky: State your name.

Rostov: Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt.

Vyshinsky: You may have your titles; they are of no use to anyone else. But for the record, are you not Alexander Rostov, born in St. Petersburg, 24 October 1889?

Rostov: I am he.

Vyshinsky: Before we begin, I must say, I do not think that I have ever seen a jacket festooned with so many buttons.

Rostov: Thank you.

Vyshinsky: It was not meant as a compliment.

Rostov: In that case, I demand satisfaction on the field of honor.

[Laughter.]

Secretary Ignatov: Silence in the gallery.

Vyshinsky: What is your current address?

Rostov: Suite 317 at the Hotel Metropol, Moscow.

Vyshinsky: How long have you lived there?

Rostov: I have been in residence since the fifth of September 1918. Just under four years.

Vyshinsky: And your occupation?

Rostov: It is not the business of gentlemen to have occupations.

Vyshinsky: Very well then. How do you spend your time?

Rostov: Dining, discussing. Reading, reflecting. The usual rigmarole.

Vyshinsky: And you write poetry?

Rostov: I have been known to fence with a quill.

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Why I love it

I am a lover of 19th century Russian literature, which so often fused French glamour with the harsh reality of Siberian-style winters and encroaching revolution. You felt the warm glow of the gas lantern, the luxurious texture of the ball gown, the sting of the cold night air as the horse-drawn carriage carried weary passengers home in the wee hours, after the ball, and the call of history, and war.

A Gentleman in Moscow carries this lavish sensibility through to post-revolution Russia, as the new Soviet Government assumes power in 1922. Amor Towles (whose first novel is the sublime Rules of Civility), this time delivers a novel as richly filigreed as the set design of the film The Grand Budapest Hotel. And indeed, A Gentleman in Moscow takes place entirely within its own hotel grande dame, The Metropol. Our hero, Count Alexander Illyich Rostov has been sentenced to live out the rest of his life there by the Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which had deemed aristocrats to be enemies of the people. Under threat of being shot if he as much as steps outside the walls of the Metropol, the debonair and irrepressible Count sets about recreating his life within this gentleman's prison, an effort that takes all of his boundless inventiveness and good humor. There is much to delight in—even laugh out loud at—in the Count's circumscribed adventures-but even he can't keep tragedy from encroaching.

While the story is, literally speaking, narrowly drawn, in overarching terms the book depicts Russian society making the painful transition from tsarist autocracy to Soviet communism. Everything and everyone is forced to change—not least Count Rostov. But this book's pleasures are in the details. What Count Rostov never loses is his appreciation for life's gorgeous details—sharing a freshly made cup of coffee while gazing at the night sky; conversation with an Eloise-like hotel denizen; a great meal accompanied by fine wine, followed by the company, late into the night, of a piece of great literature.

I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this book. It is layered with delicious, minute observation, so that you never want to skip over passages. I marvel at Towles' clear mastery of history, culture, epicure, and how he never makes any of it feel stuffy. And it's inspiring to think that a man who began writing novels in middle age—he was an investment banker until 2012—can write fiction as if he were born to it.

I am so thrilled to have the chance to recommend this enthralling, exotic, elegant novel to you.

Other books by Amor Towles

Member ratings (10,825)

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Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum