A Gentleman in Moscow
SynopsisPlot
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.
Story
About this book
In 1922, a Bolshevik tribunal declares Count Alexander Rostov an unrepentant aristocrat and sentences him to house arrest inside the Metropol, a large hotel situated across the street from the Kremlin in Moscow. Rostov, a well-read and witty man who has never held a job, is moved from his suite to a small attic room. Outside the hotel walls, decades of upheaval in Russian history proceed without him. His world shrinks to the hallways, restaurants, and rooms of a single building.
Within those confined quarters, Rostov builds an unexpected life. He forms relationships with hotel staff, guests, and others who pass through the Metropol over the years. The novel follows him from the early Soviet period onward, tracking how a man stripped of his former status finds new forms of connection and purpose. Amor Towles sets the entire story within the hotel, using it as a fixed point while the country outside transforms around it.
Towles previously wrote Rules of Civility, a novel set in late 1930s Manhattan. A Gentleman in Moscow was named a New York Times Readers' Choice pick among the best books of the 21st century and has reached more than two million readers.
