A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Historical fiction

A Gentleman in Moscow

2016 LOLLY FINALIST

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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View all
Ruinous Ends
The Winged Game
Games: A Love Story
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Seek the Traitor’s Son
Dissection of a Murder
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Into the Blue
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
We Who Will Die
Silver Elite
And Now, Back to You
Dawn of the North
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Stolen Midnights
Sunk in Love
Skylark
Rings of Fate
Crux
The Rebel and the Rose
Buckeye
Good Spirits
Red City
The Academy
Wild Reverence
To the Moon and Back
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The River Is Waiting
This Princess Kills Monsters
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
My Friends
Home of the American Circus
Gifted & Talented
Enchantra
We All Live Here
First-Time Caller
Babylonia
The Favorites
The Thirteenth Child
Most Wonderful
The Courting of Bristol Keats
Pictures of You
PS: I Hate You
The Road of Bones
Intermezzo
The Dagger and the Flame
The Wild Huntress
The Crimson Crown
Here One Moment
Phantasma
The Pairing
All the Colors of the Dark
The God of the Woods
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The Demon of Unrest
Five Broken Blades
Real Americans
Table for Two
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Just for the Summer
The Wives
A Fate Inked in Blood
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
The Fox Wife
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
Ready or Not
Heartless Hunter
The Women
Family Family
Ruthless Vows
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
The Frozen River
The Future
What We Kept to Ourselves
Wellness
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Love, Theoretically
The Only One Left
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