Amor Towles – A Gentleman in Moscow – Review

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov returns to Moscow from Paris as the Bolsheviks now rule over the Soviet Union as they've defeated the White Russian opposition. He understands the Russian aristocracy are being executed daily; however, he returns to the family estate, Idlhour, to aid his family in all the chaos. The Count is captured and put on trial for a famous “political” poem he once published, and exiled to the famous Hotel Metropol, where he remains for over thirty years under house arrest.

Anyone reading this little synopsis would believe this to be a banal premise for a novel. A Gentleman in Moscow exceeds banal to the status of extraordinary, as we track along with this charming man's life within the halls of the hotel, while learning about old Russia before the revolution.

Count Alexander is intelligent, worldly, well-read, and nurtured in the finer things in life: great wine, gastronomic knowledge, and the stately manners of a lost generation. The Count's central redeeming attributes are kindness and care for his fellow human beings. Although very much aware of his lofty station, he never condescends and seems to have an uncanny comprehension of human nature. He takes his Fate as it comes, handling himself with integrity and humor.

The two other more central characters are Nina and Sofia. We meet Nina at the beginning of the text as a young girl of eight or nine: precocious with a strong sense of self, the Count and the child strike-up a unique relationship that is both loving and funny. The Count becomes “Uncle Alex” over a few years until her family must move out of the Hotel. Later, after many years, she returns with a young daughter of eight years of age, caught up in her duties of the State, and leaves Sofia with the Count. This relationship grows into a beautiful connection between kindred spirits.

The Count doesn't sit in his room simply reading and brooding, his life in the Hotel becomes productive and the many characters working within the Hotel, we come to intimately know and relate to... my favorites are the Hotel chef and the beautiful Soviet film star, whose connection to the count lasts for many years.

Published in 2016, A Gentleman in Moscow became an international bestseller. Over the years, I've never based my 12 month reading list on The New York Times Bestseller List, however. managed to come across the novel by accident, read the first chapter and bought it without hesitation.

A Gentleman in Moscow is an exceptional piece of literature: sensitive, educational, moving and a word of caution: the novel's ending just might leave you with a tear in your eye.

Truly astonishing.