A Count Becomes a Waiter in a Novel of Soviet Supremacy “Beyond the door of the luxurious Hotel Metropol lies Theater Square and the rest of Moscow, and beyond its city limits the tumultuous landscape of 20th-century Russia. The year 1922 is a good starting point for a Russian epic, but for the purposes…(Read More)
‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ is a charming reminder of what it means to be classy By Ron Charles September 19 How delightful that in an era as crude as ours this finely composed new novel by Amor Towles stretches out with old-World elegance. “A Gentleman in Moscow” offers a chance to sink back into…(Read More)
You can find the interview I gave to the Wall Street Journal’s Lucy Feldman (while comfortably seated at the Russian Tea Room) here…(Read More)
Read my short piece for Condé Nast Traveler which is on my great-great-grandfather’s hat box and his travels in the Belle Époque here…(Read More)
Read Bookpage’s recent profile of Amor Towles and his new novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, here. “Entering a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, for an annual investment conference some years ago, Amor Towles suddenly envisioned the premise for his inventive, entertaining and richly textured second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow…(Read More)
Read Publisher’s Weekly’s recent profile of Amor Towles and his new novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, here. “Sitting over a cappuccino in Caffe Reggio in New York’s Greenwich Village, listening to the novelist Amor Towles speak about the Russian Revolution, it’s not difficult to imagine that this scene is taking place…(Read More)
“A masterly encapsulation of modern Russian history, this book more than fulfills the promise of Towles’ stylish debut, Rules of Civility (2011).” Read more here…(Read More)
In recent summers, my father has come to Manhattan so we can dine at the bar of the Union Square Café, go to a show, and wrap it up with a nightcap. This year, he suggested we see Anything Goes, the Cole Porter revival currently playing on Broadway. It was a reunion of sorts. When…(Read More)
CLOSING TIME
by
One for My Baby It’s quarter to three There’s no one in the place except you and me So set em up Joe I got a little story, you oughtta know… Around 1947, Frank Sinatra first performed his doleful wonder One for My Baby, a 28 line one-way conversation between a man…(Read More)
NIGHTHAWKS
by
Set in Manhattan in 1938, Rules of Civility is told from the perspective of a bright, young woman of limited means for whom a chance encounter in a jazz club leads indirectly to a series of life changes. There are a number of influences which inform the mood and themes of the book, including overt…(Read More)