A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Charming Count.  

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is about a man who is placed on indefinite confinement in a Moscow hotel in 1922 for an incendiary poem he wrote during political unrest in Russia. The Bolsheviks spare Count Alexander Rostov’s life, but only if he never steps outside the confines of the Metropol Hotel again. In the hotel he settles into a subdued life stuffed away in a small attic room. He watches from the inside as the political landscape outside his window constantly changes. During his days, months, and years there, he forms friendships with the staff (and one enemy) and later has a life-altering event.  But it isn’t really what’s happening in the hotel that pulled me in so tightly to this book, it was Count Rostov himself.  As the title suggests, he is a true gentleman, a distinguished man who handles himself with the utmost charm and unassuming congeniality that would not be expected from a prisoner, but from the aristocrat he truly is. He is intelligent, witty, a refined and “seasoned conversationalist,” and won my heart over. By the end of the novel, I felt as if he was a friend, not just a character.  

I loved this book and am glad to have read it after scoring as a top book club recommendation. The writing is superb and has all the sweet tones of a classic to be cherished: it’s lyrical, richly elegant, and as buoyant as bubbly champagne.  Who knows, maybe I can get my own book club to get lost in the Count’s world. 

Here are some lines from the book:

“Do you dance?”

“I have been known to scuff the parquet.”

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow (New York: Penguin Books, 2016), 42.

“Manners are not like bonbons, Nina. You may not choose the ones that suit you best; and you certainly cannot put the half-bitten ones back in the box…”  

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow (New York: Penguin Books, 2016),52

“For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”  

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow (New York: Penguin Books, 2016), 387-388.

Update:  Did you know: A Gentleman in Moscow is one of Tom Hanks favorite books and also made President Barak Obama's Best Books of 2017 List as well as Bill Gates list of recommended books? 

If I haven't enticed you enough to pick up the book, check out this CBS news video about the grand hotel and author, Amor Towles.  I wish I could go there! 
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-gentleman-in-moscow-amor-towles-metropol-hotel/

[The cake pictured above is my attempt at a Dobos Torte as mentioned in the book (although it's obviously not in the shape of a piano).  I used the recipe from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible.]

Happy Reading,

Annette