A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles, 2016
Historical fiction HistoryContemporary fictionLiterary fiction
A Russian count is sentenced to house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel, where four decades of dinners, friendships and small rebellions must fit inside a few hundred rooms. Inside a grand hotel, four decades pass with witty conversation, small rebellions, and a steady undercurrent of melancholy and memory.
Feels like wonder and melancholy. About freedom, friendship and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy witty, civilized company, historical fiction in a confined setting, and friendships built over decades. The four-decade span stays inside one hotel, so some stretches are leisurely and episode-driven rather than urgent.
Why read it
It offers the pleasure of a long, civilized friendship in a small world, with humor and tenderness sharpened by confinement.
A page from the book
A man realises his days have quietly become a set of measurements.
Granted, a bottle of Baudelaire was something of an extravagance for a solitary lunch, but after spending another morning with the indefatigable Michel de Montaigne, the Count felt that his morale could use the boost. For several days, in fact, he had been fending off a state of restlessness. On his regular descent to the lobby, he caught himself counting the steps. As he browsed the headlines in his favorite chair, he found he was lifting his hands to twirl the tips of moustaches that were no longer there. He found he was walking through the door of the Piazza at 12:01 for lunch. And at 1:35, when he climbed the 110 steps to his room, he was already calculating the minutes until he could come back downstairs for a drink. Amor Towles.Before turning to fiction, Towles spent two decades in investment management; his first novel, Rules of Civility, appeared in 2011, this one five years later.
Books that feel like this
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Amor Towles, 2021
Just out of reform school in 1954, Emmett wants to drive to California with his little brother — until two escapees arrive with a different plan.
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Questions readers ask
- Is A Gentleman in Moscow for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy witty, civilized company, historical fiction in a confined setting, and friendships built over decades. The four-decade span stays inside one hotel, so some stretches are leisurely and episode-driven rather than urgent.
- What is A Gentleman in Moscow like?
- Inside a grand hotel, four decades pass with witty conversation, small rebellions, and a steady undercurrent of melancholy and memory. Feels like wonder and melancholy. About freedom, friendship and memory.
- What should I read after A Gentleman in Moscow?
- If you liked A Gentleman in Moscow, try Looking for Alaska (John Green), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling) and The Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson).
A taste of the feed
The case for being seventeen and certain nothing can end you.
When adults say, “Teenagers think they are invincible” with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.
Looking for Alaska · John Green
The courage nobody applauds is the kind you spend on a friend.
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone · J.K. Rowling
Some evenings the only way to breathe is to leave the ground behind.
He smiled, then flared his steel and Pushed off the top of the streetlight to send himself in a wide arc through the air. Mist streamed past him, swirling as the wind rushed against his face. It was thrilling. A man never truly felt free until he’d thrown off gravity’s chains and sought the sky.
The Alloy of Law · Brandon Sanderson
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