Books by Amor Towles

What follows is a brief anecdotal history of the Metropol Hotel - but for a glimpse of the hotel today, you can watch the interview that ran on CBS Sunday Morning with me and CBS senior correspondent (and former Moscow bureau chief), Liz Palmer.

This unique map by Alex Coulter was commissioned for A Gentleman in Moscow. You can also see the contemporary Google map.

My interest in writing about the early twentieth century is neither a reflection of a love of history, nor a nostalgia for a bygone era. What has attracted me to the period is that it has a proximate distance to the present. It is near enough in time that it seems familiar to most readers, but far enough away that they have no firsthand knowledge of what actually happened. This provides me with the liberty to explore the narrow border between the unbelievably actual and the convincingly imagined.

First of all, if you have come to this Reader’s Guide because you have read A Gentleman in Moscow, I owe you my heartfelt thanks. I hope you enjoyed the book. For those interested in learning more about the background of the book or my process, I encourage you to browse this site where I have placed a variety of supporting materials. In particular, you may be interested in my Q&A (which answers some frequently asked questions) or my brief history of the Metropol Hotel.

The following playlist includes five classical pieces referenced in A Gentleman in Moscow listed below in the order in which they appear in the novel.

If you have questions or comments, media contacts, or would like to be added to my distribution list for rare news, please fill out the form here. In so doing, you need only include your city and state.

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

His novels Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway have collectively sold more than six million copies and been translated into more than thirty languages. Both Bill Gates and President Barack Obama included A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway on their annual book recommendation lists.

First commercial transatlantic flight (by Pan Am) Blue Note records established as Charlie Parker settles in NY “The Wizard of Oz” starring Judy Garland Einstein-Szilard letter alerting Roosevelt that Germans are working on an atom bomb

Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall concert Superman introduced in Action Comics #1 (followed by Batman a year later) British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain confirms “Peace for our time” Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre