A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

This past week my Red Read Robin book club met to discuss the book A Gentleman in Moscow written by Amor Towles. It took me a long time to get it from the library and when I got it I got a large print book that was 719 pages long so it took me a long time to read it, too. However, I thought it was an excellent book and when my group met last week everyone who was there enjoyed it even the ones who hadn’t quite finished it was enamored by Count Alexander Rostov.

The book takes place in Moscow starting in 1922. When the thirty year old
Count is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by the Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. An indomitable man of erudition and wit, Rostov must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in history are unfolding outside the hotel’s door.

Unexpectedly, the Count’s reduced circumstances provide him entry to a much larger world of emotional discovery as he forges friendships with the other hotel’s denizens, including a willful actress, a shrewd Kremlinite, a gregarious American, and a temperamental chef. But when fate puts the life of a young girl in his hands he must draw on all his ingenuity to protect the future she so deserves.

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.

The three paragraphs before this were on the back cover of the book, and I couldn’t have expressed it better. I loved the book so much after reading it I decided to buy a copy to share with my sisters and maybe even read again eventually. I called The Village Bookstore where my books are sold as well as used books to see if they had a copy. Ellen Eckhouse, the owner and a friend of mine, said she had read the book and thought it was one of best one’s she’d ever read. She no longer had it because she’d sold it.

My book club who met at a lovely restaurant, discussed at length the different characters and we all liked most of the characters and most especially the Count. The few who hadn’t gotten very far through this long book yet were eager to finish it after hearing all the praise we were giving it. One of the members of our club looked up the Metropol Hotel and found out it was a beautiful hotel. The Count had been living there in a luxury suite before he’d been arrested and banished to the pathetic small room in the attic of the hotel.

One of the things interesting about the book is that Amor Towles would insert historical paragraphs of what was going on in each time period in Moscow at that time as the book progressed from 1922 up until the 1950s.

I looked up the biography of Amor Towles through Googe, and found this bio by Goodreads. and this is what I found: If you want to read more about it just Google Author Amor Towles and the title of the book and it will pop up the first on the list.

He's one handsome guy, isn't he.

Born and raised in the Boston Area, Amor graduated from Yale College and received a MA in English from Stanford University. Having worked as an investment professional in Manhattan for over 20 years, he now devotes himself full time to writing. His first novel Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and was ranked by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of 2011. The book was optioned by Lionsgate to be made into a feature film. His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow published in 2016 was also a New York Times bestseller and was ranked as one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune and others.

I know now I want to read his first novel, too.

Have you read either of Amor Towles books?

Do you think you would enjoy A Gentleman in Moscow?