What readers think of A Gentleman in Moscow, plus links to write your own review.

Such a good book! Hoe amazing to write a very good book about spending the rest of one’s life in a hotel room that was a great read. Good job Amor! About time to do it again. I did make the special spaghetti sauce. Which was good but not amazingly so.

In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is declared by the new-to-power Bolsheviks of being a Former Person and is sentenced to house arrest. It just so happens that the good count, a highly-educated, well-read aristocrat who has never worked a day in his life, has lived for the past four years in the world-renowned and very posh Metropol Hotel, located directly across the street from the Kremlin. And so he must spend the rest of his life as a guest of the Metropol. He may never leave the building.

This delightful book tells the story of how he manages to not only survive, but also thrive. (Hey, it's better than Siberia!) Ever the optimist and ever the gentleman, the count's daily existence is influenced in countless ways by the Metropol's ever-changing roster of upper crust guests, including the Kremlin's top leaders, movie stars, international journalists and wealthy travelers, as well as the hotel's surprisingly stable staff--the bartender, concierge, chef, waiters, maître d' and seamstress.

Written with empathy, incredible skill and a touch of the absurd, author Amor Towles proves once again that he is a master of storytelling. Because more than anything else, this book is a good read! Laugh-out-loud funny in many parts, compassionate in others and distressfully sad in some, this is a book that will charm you and touch your heart for a long time to come. The cherry on top of this delicious book is the ending: It is absolutely inspired.

P.S. The footnotes are delightful and quirky! Yes, this novel has footnotes. And if you're reading it on the Kindle, do click on every one of them--because they are that good.

To enjoy reading is a gift. To read a beautifully told story is an honor. Such a story is "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles. The story surrounds us with the best of human emotions; love, loyalty, respect, friendship and infinite kindness. The book is a beautiful canvas on which each reader can paint and soon become immersed. I thank Amor Towles for this piece of Art and would recommend it to anyone.

FYI: I would be interested in knowing who his favorite authors of old are?

“Some might wonder that the two men should consider themselves to be old friends having only known each other for four years; but the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time. These two would have felt like old friends had they met just hours before. To some degree, this was because they were kindred spirits – finding ample evidence of common ground and cause for laughter in the midst of effortless conversation; but it was also almost certainly a matter of upbringing. Raised in grand homes in cosmopolitan cities, educated in the liberal arts, graced with idle hors, and exposed to the finest things, though the Count and the American had been born ten years and four thousand miles apart, they had more in common with each other than they had with the majority of their countrymen.”

A Gentleman in Moscow is the second novel by American author, Amor Towles. At the age of thirty-two, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov finds himself under house arrest in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol. It’s 1922, and the Bolsheviks are in charge; as an aristocrat, Count Rostov becomes a Former Person. Rostov has been occupying a suite on the third floor; now he leaves behind for “The People” all that he cannot fit into a tiny attic room three floors up. A good friend states, much later “Who would have imagined, when you were sentenced to life in the Metropol all those years ago, that you had just become the luckiest man in all of Russia.”

Towles drops his readers into Rostov’s life every few years, bringing them up to date on significant events and people. If his detention is meant to be a punishment, Rostov is determined to make the best of it, and does so, despite some shaky times and one suicidal moment. Already well respected before his confinement, within a few years Count Rostov’s role goes significantly beyond that of an involuntary guest held in great affection. For loved and respected he indeed is, by guests and all bar one member of the Metropol’s staff.

This is not an action-packed page-turner, although there is a good dose of intrigue, some romance, plenty of humour and a rather exciting climax. This is a novel that meanders along at a gentle pace. Towles is a skilful storyteller: even seemingly unimportant details woven into the narrative prove their significance if the reader is patient. As well as exploring the philosophies of friendship and of politics, his setting facilitates a suitably nasty and vindictive petty bureaucrat, and a very fine example of communist equality policy at its silliest.

This is a novel with love and loyalty, compassion and quite a lot of wisdom, all wrapped is beautiful prose: “For if a room that exists under the governance, authority, and intent of others seems smaller than it is, then a room that exists in secret can, regardless of its dimensions, seem as vast as one cares to imagine”. David Nicholls describes Towles’s first novel as “terrific”; his fans might think this one is too. Simply wonderful!

This is one of my all-time favorite books. The Count is an example of a person who knows how to live life. Despite confinement he loves his adopted family and friends, and finds pleasure in the simple aspects of human existence. History and culture are also abundantly represented in this beautiful novel

One of the best books I've ever read! Savor each chapter.

Short ones lead us into more serious chapters which lengthen with the depth of the story and the times.

We are confined to the Hotel just as is the Count and I marveled at his patience, joy of living, and philosophical insights during the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia. From a grand suite of rooms to a tiny attic with him we meet many interesting characters.

Wonderful, smart writing - great story. One of my new fav writers.

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to life, a life lived in the Hotel Metropol - never to leave its doors. Then taken from his elegant suite and relegated to an attic room to spend his life.

It is through his various friends and acquaintances, Nina, Sophia, Anna, Osip, Mikhail and the staff at the hotel that Sasha survives this exile.

This book is breathtaking. The lyrical prose of this novel lulls you into the early 20th century as you image the sights and sounds of Russia. It flows so smoothly that the words just seem to melt away, leaving you with a contented feeling, a need to continue with this mellow hazy sensibility, eating in paragraph after paragraph and continually seeking more.