The plot does just what it should, it twists and turns, surprises and satisfies but this is so much more than good story telling. We follow the life of this man as he resolves that small actions can restore a sense of order.

He finds himself among the 'humbled', those who 'greet adulation with caution, ambition with sympathy, and condescension with an inward smile'.

We are with him through tumultuous changes as he realizes the folly of the comfort found in heirlooms and traditions that are passed from generation to generation, objects that lead us to believe that 'the passing of an era would indeed be glacial.' Instead, political upheaval in Russia forces Alexander Rostov to acknowledge old ideas can be swept away in an instant-especially when the 'men in charge distrust any form of hesitation, or nuance, and who prize self-assurance above all'. He speaks with the authority of royalty, yet feels at times like your grandfather who wants to share his hard fought wisdom. The main character is both prodigious and ordinary. It feels more like a conversation with the author, than a novel. Lyrical and complex- yet so easy to read. What first struck me, however, was the beautiful language. What I received instead was a masterpiece which carried me to another place and time, only to remind me of the quiet goodness and dignity of everyday people in ordinary life, whom I encounter daily. I had not read Rules of Civility, but was looking for something uplifting for easy summer reading and the description seemed to fit. I am so glad I eventually clicked on this book. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.īrimming 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.Ī Reprieve Amidst Ugly News, Relentless Negativity 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.

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. The mega-best seller with more than two million readers, soon to be a major television series.įrom the number one New York Times-best-selling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.

A gentleman in moscow by amor towles