A fair proportion of the books reviewed in this magazine receive five stars. You’d think that this recommendation would then be universal – that every reader would agree that these books are exceptional. Not so, unfortunately.
You, dear reader, will have noticed the same phenomenon with your own bookish friends. How often have you read a book, passed it to a friend with a glowing recommendation, only to have it tossed back at you with questions regarding your taste and/or your sanity?
So, is there any book you could enjoy reading then pass on without fear?
In 2016, Amor Towles published A Gentleman in Moscow. It’s a book I’ve happily loaned to friends. I’m yet to have anyone say they haven’t enjoyed it.
Count Alexander Rostov was an aristocrat in Russia at the time of the Romanovs. He spent time away from Russia, returning in 1922 – five years after the Bolshevik Revolution. He was promptly tried for being an ‘unrepentant aristocrat’ and placed under lifelong house arrest, moving from his luxurious suite at the Hotel Metropol to the dusty attic. Rostov is an instantly likeable loner, unused to relationships. In the three decades of his incarceration he learns the value of family.
There is a sublime beauty in Towles imprisoning Rostov in a hotel. It allows an array of satellite characters, both employees and guests, to orbit the stationary protagonist. The employees not only ease Rostov’s internment, but also teach him valuable life lessons. Of the guests, Nina, a nine-year-old girl possessing a passkey to all of the hotel’s rooms, makes the biggest impact on Rostov. Together they explore the hotel. Another guest, the famous actress, Anna Urbanova, becomes Rostov’s lover.
An adult Nina returns after many years, leaving her daughter with Rostov for safekeeping while she tries to find her Siberia-exiled husband. Nina fails to return and Rostov must learn how to raise Sofia. All the while he’s plotting his escape, hoping to reunite with Anna. So … what makes this so special?
Towles is a remarkably gifted storyteller. He sits with his characters, getting to know all their quirks, long before they appear on the page. Consequently, they have such depth that they appear to know more about themselves and the story than the author. The cinematic richness with which he renders the setting is extraordinary. A reader feels as if they too could navigate the intricate passages of the Metropol. This novel is listed as historical fiction. More accurately, it’s a story of redemption and the transcendent power of love.
I wanted to borrow a library copy to refresh my memory. (My own copy is still out there … somewhere.) All of the copies of the novel – in all its manifestations and from all of the library’s branches – are on loan. That speaks to the book’s continuing appeal far more than any five-star review can.
Find it, read it, then pass it on with confidence. Your friends will thank you for it.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in the Boston area, Amor Towles graduated from Yale College and received an MA in English from Stanford University. Having worked as an investment professional for over twenty years, he now devotes himself full time to writing in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children. His novels Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway have collectively sold more than six million copies and been translated into more than thirty languages. Both Bill Gates and President Barack Obama included A Gentleman in Moscowand The Lincoln Highway on their annual book recommendation lists.
Rules of Civility (2011) was a New York Times bestseller and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of the year. The book’s French translation received the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald.
A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) was on the New York Times bestseller list for two years and was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR.
The Lincoln Highway (2021) debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Towles’s short stories have appeared in the Paris Review (#112), Granta (#148), British Vogue, and Audible Originals.
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