A Gentleman in Moscow
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles
It is 1922, and Count Alexander Rostov has been sentenced to a most unusual punishment. A Bolshevik tribunal deems him an unrepentant aristocrat but spares his life thanks to a youthful poem with revolutionary undertones. Instead of execution, the Count faces lifelong house arrest inside Moscow's grand Hotel Metropol, just across the street from the Kremlin.
Stripped of his luxurious suite and moved to a tiny room in the attic, this witty, well-read nobleman must reinvent his entire existence within the hotel's walls. Decades of Russian history unfold outside, but inside, the Metropol becomes a world unto itself. The Count forges friendships with chefs, seamstresses, bartenders, and a precocious young girl who holds the keys to every door in the building.
Over more than thirty years, he navigates love affairs, unexpected parenthood, conspiracies, and the quiet heroism of daily life. Towles fills every chapter with warmth, humor, and exquisite details about food, wine, and human connection. The novel brims with romance, espionage, poetry, and philosophy without ever feeling heavy.
This is the kind of book you want to press into the hands of everyone you know. It is charming, surprising, and deeply satisfying from first page to last. Pour yourself something fine and settle in.
Interesting Facts
Thirty-Two Years in One Building: Count Alexander Rostov lives under house arrest in Moscow's Hotel Metropol for over three decades. The entire novel unfolds within the hotel's walls from 1922 to 1954. Towles initially worried about trapping himself and readers in a single location. But the hotel kept opening up to reveal more aspects of life, just like the Count's own experience.
Born from a Geneva Hotel Lobby: Towles conceived the novel in 2009 while staying at a Geneva hotel for the eighth consecutive year. He recognized guests lingering in the lobby from the previous year, as if they had never left. Upstairs in his room, he began imagining a story about a man stuck in a grand hotel. He combined this with Russia's historical tradition of house arrest.
Written Without Visiting Moscow: Towles hadn't visited the Metropol Hotel before writing the book. He only traveled to Moscow and moved into the hotel after completing his first draft. He researched famous guests and their writings about the hotel only after finishing the creative process. Towles doesn't speak Russian and had only been to Russia a few times before writing.
Eighteen Months of Intense Writing: The first draft took eighteen months to complete, producing a six-hundred-page manuscript. Towles retired from his investment banking career in 2013 to write full time. He then revised the manuscript from beginning to end three times. Years of detailed outlining preceded the actual writing.
The Count Is Entirely Fictional: Count Alexander Rostov never existed, though the Hotel Metropol is real. The hotel was constructed between 1899 and 1905 in Art Nouveau style. It remains operational today and offers tours based on the novel. Guests can even book packages that include the Count's favorite meals and drinks at the Shalyapin bar.
Queen Camilla's Pandemic Pick: Then Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Camilla recommended the book to those in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel's themes of confinement and resilience resonated during lockdowns. Ann Patchett called it "like a salve" for disordered times.
New York Times Bestseller for 59 Weeks: The hardcover remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 59 weeks. It sold over 1.5 million copies in all formats by early 2019. The novel was the number one selling hardcover at America's independent bookstores in 2018, two years after publication. Word-of-mouth drove its enduring success.
Bill Gates Called It Amazing: Bill Gates praised the novel for managing to be "a little bit of everything." He noted it contains romance, politics, espionage, parenthood and poetry. Gates said it could accurately be called a thriller or a love story, not just historical fiction.
A Scene Stolen from His Parents: The scene where Anna Urbanova throws her clothes out the window came from Towles's own family. Shortly after his parents married, his mother wouldn't pick up her clothes. His father threw them out the window. Towles leaves it to readers to guess who retrieved them in the middle of the night.
Diamond-Shaped Structure: Towles describes the novel's geometry as "a diamond on its side." The narrative structure proved more challenging than confining the story to one building. The book uses an unusual accordion structure with varying time spans between chapters. An overarching narrator appears in footnotes, addendums, and historical introductions.
Inspired by Russian Literary Giants: Towles fell in love with Russia's golden age writers in his twenties, including Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. He later discovered the avant-garde styles of Mayakovsky, Nijinsky, Malevich, and Eisenstein. The novel's humor draws inspiration from Gogol's balance against darker historical aspects.
Adapted with Ewan McGregor: A television series premiered on Paramount+ in March 2024 starring Ewan McGregor as Count Rostov. Real-life married couple McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead play the Count and Anna Urbanova. The series was filmed in England, not Russia, using locations like Bolton Town Hall and Liverpool Town Hall.
Kirkus Prize Finalist and Award Winner: The novel was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and Literature. It appeared on the 2018 longlist for the International Dublin Literary Award. The audiobook, narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith, won an AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award in 2016. The New York Times later named it one of the best books of the 21st century.
Quotes
"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
"Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself." - Amor Towles
"When one turns seventeen and begins to experience that first period of real independence, one’s senses are so alert, one’s sentiments so finely attuned that every conversation, every look, every laugh may be writ indelibly upon one’s memory." - Amor Towles
"If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them." - Amor Towles
"After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli." - Amor Towles
"One must make ends meet, or meet one’s end." - Amor Towles
"A man must master his circumstances or otherwise be mastered by them." - Amor Towles
"No matter how much time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely." - Amor Towles
"The tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time." - Amor Towles
"He said that our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of lucidity – a moment in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of the life we had been meant to lead all along." - Amor Towles
"A king fortifies himself with a castle, a gentleman with a desk." - Amor Towles
"If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us...then there wouldn't be so much fuss about love in the first place." - Amor Towles
"It was, without question, the smallest room that he had occupied in his life; yet somehow, within those four walls the world had come and gone." - Amor Towles
"If patience wasn’t so easily tested, then it would hardly be a virtue." - Amor Towles
"From the earliest age, we must learn to say good-bye to friends and family. But experience is less likely to teach us how to bid our dearest possessions adieu." - Amor Towles
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