To be published in numerous magazines in May: The gentleman of the title is Count Alexander Rostov. Following the Russian Revolution, the Count is sentenced to house (or in this case, hotel) arrest, indefinitely. He’s given work as a waiter in the hotel restaurant, and forges close friendships with some of the other inhabitants. While his view is mainly confined to what he can see out of his tiny window, Rostov is able to observe and ruminate on a tumultuous Russia over the course of four decades. You’ll savour every word.

A Gentleman in Moscow is a brief history of Russia from the Bolshevik revolution to the mid Fifties seen through the eyes of an aristocrat under house arrest in a large and luxurious hotel. He is initially a guest but in time joins the staff as head waiter. He is entertained by a young girl fellow guest, who, when she is in political difficulty as an adult leaves her five year old daughter with the Count, who brings her up in the hotel and adopts her. Although the corruption and horror of the regime is clearly shown, the tone is light hearted and it is a consistently entertaining read.

I was a little uncertain before I read this book,but as soon as I had read the first 30 pages I was engrossed. It's very easy to read, and the characters are engaging. I learned a lot about the Russian Revolution without it being a chore! Alexander Is a man that I would like to meet, but reading A Gentleman in Moscow is as close as I will get. A very enjoyable book- thank you, Netgalley for sending it to my Kindle.

This is a well written if bleak look at Russia post revolution. I loved the character of Count Rostov and his tenacity even though he was confined to house arrest. It really was a compelling read, comical in parts, and I enjoyed the many literary references. This is historical fiction at its best; enjoyable, erudite and engaging.

I was really looking forward to getting stuck into A Gentleman in Moscow, due to my love of Russian fiction. Unfortunately, despite being a beautifully written book with a well developed plot and characters, this book just wasn't for me. I found it very hard to be invested in what was happening - it was quite a slow paced story, took place over a number of years and was mostly set in one place, so I think these factors are the reasons that I struggled with it. However, I would still recommend this book, as it is insightful and beautifully written. I imagine that, although it wasn't for me, it could easily become someone else's favourite novel.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, but it's been a while since I last read a story set in Russia. This novel by Amor Towles starts in the 1920s and follows the main character during the next two decades, successfully combining historical facts with the personal stories of the characters and making A Gentleman In Moscow that much more intriguing to read. Sure, this novel has quite a slow pace and that might disencourage some readers. But the prose and descriptions more than make up for it and the slow pace can be explained in the first place by the fact that it's a mostly character-driven story. It's beautifully written story that will appeal to both fans of the historical fiction genre and to those who enjoy a proper character-driven story. Because it's the main characters who make this book into such a lovely story; without Count Alexander Rostov and his new friends at the hotel, this story would simply fall apart.

Count Rostov knows the Revolution is going to make changes in Russia and he engineers it so that his relatives can escape but Rostov chooses not to, living his life in a hotel in Moscow. However in 1922 he is hauled up in front of the Bolsheviks and only just escapes with his life. Sentenced to 'house arrest' in the hotel Rostov is moved to the attic and becomes a waiter and his life revolves around the experiences and characters he meets.

This book was deeply satisfying, telling a gentle tale of man who stayed the same as the world turned around him. Full of clever characters and witty vignettes, Towles is an entertaining writer with a wry knack for an unusual tale.

5★+++

Remarkable! The premise is remarkable, the execution is remarkable, and the fact it captured my interest so completely is remarkable, since I know so little about Russian history or the revolution. I guess it’s obvious I loved it.

"Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt," is stripped of his titles after the Russian Revolution and confined to quarters, to live forever in the Hotel Metropol, where he has been enjoying life in a luxury suite until now. Not only must he never leave the premises, he must move to a 10’ by 10’ (about 3m square) room in a garret next to the belfry and leave most of his furnishings behind.

But he still has creature comforts, including a choice of places to drink and dine, handsome rooms to sit and read, a florist and barber – all the things a quality hotel would have offered in those days – not forgetting, of course, an unparalleled wine cellar. The Count, as we continue to call him, knows exactly which vintage of which label should be enjoyed with which of the chef’s unique creations, and they are unique.

For the Count, a wine

“would express all the natural phenomena of its ‘vintage’. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter’s thaw, the extent of that summer’s rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds. Yes a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.”

How deliciously delightful, one might think. However, this musing by the Count comes as he’s wandering through the thousands of bottles in the hotel’s cellar, being shown that a Comrade has determined the restaurant will ensure egalitarian treatment of all wines by removing the labels and selling only reds and whites, a task which took ten men ten days to complete.

Then he has an epiphany. While we generally value our heirlooms and recipes and keepsakes handed down to us, they may gradually lose value through the generations, but in the case of some kind of upheaval or turmoil, let’s say a revolution, for argument’s sake, it

“can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades. And this must be especially so, when those with newfound power are men who distrust any form of hesitation or nuance, and who prize self-assurance above all.”

Right. And not only that, those with this ‘newfound power’ do not like being shown up by someone who knows his wines. So the Count learns the value of caution and keeping his head down. He takes nothing for granted - he knows how close he’s come to being shot or sent to Siberia, and still could be, at any moment. We hear sadly of his close friends who are suffering. Staff are reminded to never refer to his old title. He is simply Alexander Rostov.

But when we meet him, he seems full of joie de vivre and is sporting an admirable set of moustaches. When he falls foul of one of the barber’s customers (who seems to think “the Count” is getting preferential treatment), he is suddenly defaced, so to speak.

He accepts every insult and affront philosophically, including now being clean-shaven. His new look attracts the attention of a little girl who asks him “where did they go?”, meaning his moustaches.

Nina is nine years old, bright, inquisitive and adventurous. She invites him to tea, and later insists that the Count accompany her in investigating every hidden nook and cranny in the hotel. This makes life not only bearable, but fun, for us as well as them.

“Nina had not contented herself with the views from the upper decks. She had gone below. Behind. Around. About. In the time that Nina had been in the hotel, the walls had not grown inward, they had grown outward, expanding in scope and intricacy. In her first weeks, the building had grown to encompass the life of two city blocks. In her first months, it had grown to encompass half of Moscow.”

I loved every sneaky minute of their creeping around. He discovers a small, secret space he can assume for his own use, and most of the staff become kind of extended family. Nina helps fill the hole left by the loss of his beloved sister. His life is expanding, too.

He learns to enjoy his tiny room/s, his friendships, his meals, and importantly, his routines. He has an affair, he drinks with Americans and spies. Then, suddenly, he has a small child thrust upon him to care for and hide, and he gets a taste of a different kind of limitation: parenthood, of a sort. He mutters to himself.

“She is no more than thirty pounds; no more than three feet tall; her entire bag of belongings could fit in a single drawer; she rarely speaks unless spoken to; and her heart beats no louder than a bird’s. So how is it possible that she takes up so much space?!”

Anyone charged with the care of a small child knows the feeling.

I must quote one more passage as an example of the writing which so captivated me.

“Until, suddenly, that long-strided watchman of the minutes caught up with his bowlegged brother at the top of the dial. As the two embraced, the springs within the clock’s casing loosened, the wheels spun, and the miniature hammer fell, setting off the first of those dulcet tones that signaled the arrival of noon.”

He uses the same words much later to describe what the little girl sees at midnight. The same words, I think, because this is a twice-tolling clock, chiming at noon and midnight only, so of course she’s seen it only at noon, never at its second chiming, when the brothers embrace again.

There are scary moments – these were scary times – and there’s a lot of humour and poignancy. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House / Hutchinson for allowing me a preview copy from which I’ve quoted (so some words may have changed). And enormous thanks and congratulations to Amor Towles for creating such a wonderful world within a world.

In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is brought before a Bolshevik tribunal and found guilty of the crime of being an ‘unrepentant aristocrat’. Once a recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club and Master of the Hunt, the Count is now considered a Former Person and is sentenced to live out the rest of his days under house arrest in his current place of residence, Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. Forced to leave his luxury suite and move his possessions to a tiny room in the attic, the Count refuses to let his spirit be broken and decides to make the best of his situation, continuing with his daily routines as far as he is able without leaving the building.

With the help of Nina, a nine-year-old girl in a yellow dress, the Count explores the hidden corridors, rooms and staircases of this magnificent old building, and later he finds some fulfilment in working as a waiter at the hotel’s grandest restaurant, the Boyarsky. Although it’s never nice to lose one’s freedom, there are certainly worse places to be held prisoner than the Metropol Hotel. But what truly sustains the Count as the years and decades go by are the friendships he forms with the other hotel employees, guests and visitors.

The Count develops a close bond with Emile and Andrey, the two men who work alongside him in the restaurant, he embarks on a romance with a glamorous actress, comes to value the help and advice of the hotel seamstress, and debates politics, poetry and philosophy with friends old and new. But the most moving of his relationships, in my opinion, is the one with Sofia, who comes to the Metropol as a child and grows to think of the Count as a father. The Count is an educated, cultured, intelligent man, but he also has a good imagination and a playful sense of humour and I loved watching as he and Sofia devised their own games to entertain themselves and help pass the time.

Spending most of his adult life under house arrest, the Count is largely insulated from whatever is happening in the outside world, but through the people who pass in and out of his life he is able to keep up with current affairs. This allows the author to provide the reader with some commentary on Soviet-era Russia and to put the Count’s story into historical context. The balance between the political and the personal is about right and despite the length of the book, I was never bored.

I had been looking forward to reading A Gentleman in Moscow since seeing it appear on several people’s best-of-year lists at the end of 2016. Now that I’ve had the chance to read it for myself, I can understand all the praise that has been bestowed on it and although I don’t think I would describe it as an absolute favourite, I did find it a lovely, enjoyable story. I loved getting to know the Count and I’m sure that if you choose to read this book you’ll love him too.

This is one of those books that I don't think any review can do it justice! It has to be read. To be savoured. To be lived! And the style of writing and attention to detail lets you do that with ease! Amor Towles has captured the essence of his main character, the wonderful Count Alexander Rostov, and his situation, sentenced to house arrest at the magnificent Hotel Metropol indefinitely, with brilliant clarity.

As we watch the Count over the 30 years that follow we are introduced to some amazing characters who seem to teach the Count, and the reader, a new perspective on life and the history that is unfolding outside the Hotel doors. It makes Count Rostov re-evaluate all he thought he knew, and what makes life worth living! He talks to the pigeons and the hotels one eyed cat, he makes friends with the staff

A completely charming and captivating read and it was an absolute pleasure and delight to spend time in the company of these people with their amazing insights and a look back at life in ever changing Russia through the Second World War, Stalin and beyond. It is a very insightful, and often bittersweet, look at the way the world changes outside while he is stuck inside, but to him the Hotel becomes his 'world' and still manages to teach him things about the human race.

This book made me laugh and cry and I would just like to thank the author for an astonishing read

A wonderfully charming novel! Count Rostov is placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel, moved from his suite to attic rooms and ends up as a waiter in the hotel restaurant. Russian history proceeds over fifty years, observed from the events in the hotel. Wonderfully drawn supporting characters, the Count himself is the central hub but the whole cast are beautifully balanced and crafted. The story really draws you in and is thoroughly recommended!

I have tried so hard with this book and I just can't do it. I hate giving up on books but this book I guess just isn't for me. I didn't get more than 10% of the way in without finding myself mindnumblingly bored. I'm sorry. Maybe this book will be more for me in the future but for now it goes in my DNF pile...

A rather long, drawn out tale.

I've been reviewing books for quite some time and unfortunately 'A Gentleman In Moscow' is one of my least favourites. Luckily we are all different and I can see from reading other reviews that my opinion falls into the minority group.

The setting is in Moscow from 1922 onwards, after the Russian Revolution and tells of the fortunes and misfortunes of Count Alexander Rostov. He was used to the trappings of an extremely privileged and opulent life style and lived in a suite of rooms in The Metropole Hotel.

However post Revolution, Count Rostov is placed under house arrest, due to being an enemy of the state. He is still allowed to live within the hotel, but must never leave. He is now a man of reduced means and lives in a minute room stuck up in the attic. He has had to renounce all that he holds dear.

The tale unravels as the reader meets numerous characters who enter into the Count's life, some of whom are mundane and others who become important to him. . The events span a period of thirty years and we learn how the Count adapts to all the numerous changes, which will affect his philosophy on life.

It is obvious that Amor Towles is well versed in Russian history of the period but I found that his style of writing is so drawn out that there was a tendency for me personally to lose interest. The pace was so slow, so that is why I felt two stars was justified. Maybe this novel would suit a more serious history student.

Galadriel

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

I loved Amor Towles' sassy and stylish novel The Rules of Civility back in 2011.  His next book has taken a while to arrive but it's been worth the wait.

Following the revolution, former Russian aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov, is under house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel.  A 'former person', Rostov has been spared the grisly fate of many of his friends and family thanks to a revolutionary poem he has (disingenuously) taken the credit for writing.  The Count is definitely a 'glass half full' sort of person and, refusing to be beaten or worn down by his diminished status, he tries to carry on pretty much as before - partaking of what's left of the hotel's fine wine and food, seemingly oblivious to the poverty and upheaval taking place in the rest of the country.

The book spans the early 1920s to the late 1950s, a time of great unrest and terror in Russia.  It has to be said that most of this passes the Count by - if you're looking for an in depth analysis of Russian politics or the deprivations experienced by its people then you'll need to look elsewhere.  Such issues are touched on briefly and very lightly and it could be argued that Rostov represents the sort of entitled and idle aristocrat that caused the people to rise up and revolt in the first place.  However, this book works as a witty, whimsical and tongue-in-cheek tale and I found the Count a charming and likeable protagonist.

"Yes, exile was as old as mankind. But the Russians were the first people to master the notion of sending a man into exile at home."

It's taken me quite a while to write a review of A Gentleman in Moscow as I'm still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand it was a delight to dive into the beautifully worded story of Count Alexander Rostov and the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, but on the other hand this book really dragged for me, and as beautiful as the language was, I felt there was too much of it at times.

It was the blurb on NetGalley that drew me in (also the cover, it's bloody beautiful), an aristocrat kept under house arrest in a grand hotel in revolutionary Russia? Colour me interested. It's a fun concept and one that worked very well, especially with the lead character of Count Rostov. He is a beautifully drawn character, moving out of the restricting mold of dashing dandy. As the book progresses and his life changes, he learns how to survive in ways he'd never have imagined.

A Gentleman in Moscow is about the Count but also about Moscow, and Russia in general. I'm sorry to say that the era is one I know very little about, apart from woolly outlines from school. It was fascinating to read about; going from the grand opulence to stark watchfulness.

There are definite dark areas in the novel and at times it is a very sad book. It's veiled with humour and detail, but it still has a permeating sadness.

However, the sadness in A Gentleman in Moscow is punctuated by uplifting language and the love of Russian literature that this book is practically doused in. Tolstoy, Pushkin and Dostoyevski are all referenced with passion.
There are also quite a few uplifting quotes in the book itself, which would probably make quite good motivational posters and Pinterest quotes.

"Unlike adults, children want to be happy. So they still have the ability to take the greatest pleasure in the simplest things."

However, I have been quite positive about this book, but there's one main thing that put me off and that is the length. It is very long and I don't think it needs to be. Yes, it takes in decades, so it was never going to be a quick read, but, though the language is beautifully crafted, I felt it was overly stuffed at points. Especially nearing the end, which I felt was dragged out by delving into side stories and flashbacks.

Speaking of flashbacks, there are jumps in time in this novel which are a little confusing, and it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint exactly where the Count is in time

I'm honestly still not sure what my rating should be for A Gentleman in Moscow. I think I''m going to go with 3.5, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads etc, because, though I found it hard work, it is undeniably beautiful and interesting. I was reading to a deadline and I think that took some of the joy out of it. A Gentleman in Moscow is best dipped into occasionally; enjoyed, but not rushed.

My Rating: 3.5/5 (rounded up to 4 for NetGalley and Goodreads)

I received a digital copy of the book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

Not really what I was expecting and I couldn't get to grips with this book. I didn't finish it.

A beautifully written book that pulled me back in time to a Russia that was changing forever. The Count was a lovely character, a gentleman certainly. Seeing the world through his eyes was fascinating and I enjoyed taking the journey with him. A wonderful book.

I was given this book by Netgalley and Cornerstone in return for an honest review.

In 1922, the fictional Count Rostov is considered by his home Country of Soviet Russia as a“Former Person” for a seditious poem, and is sentenced to house arrest for life at the Hotel Metropol in Moscow.
The novel follows the next thirty years of his life within this hotel, which may sound a bit tiresome, but the Hotel Metropol is like no other. It is more like it's own village within Moscow as many people, locals and tourists, dine, shop and get their hair cut within it's walls. It is described by the author in an interview as <i>"an Oasis of liberty and luxury during the Soviet era despite being around the corner from the Kremlin and a few blocks from the head quarters of the secret police. Because the Metropol was one of the few fine hotels in Moscow at the time, almost anyone famous who visited the city either drank at, dined at, or slept at the Metropol"</i>.
Although imprisoned at the hotel and his quarters are a 100 square foot room within the attic, the Count is not confined to the room and is free to spend his days drinking champagne, romancing actresses and befriending guests. I never felt bored while reading the novel, but by about 40% I did wonder how the novel would continue to hold the reader's interest and where it was all headed.
Despite living in apparent luxury, it was still a prison, but there was never any sense of regret, or any mention from the Count of a desire to leave. He simply made his days as best he could through the relationships of those around him.
A lovely character novel which happens to be set in one of the most turbulent times in Modern Russia, and yet, we are protected from it all, as is the Count, watching the comings and goings inside the Metropol.

(3.5) “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.” Labeled a “Former Person” for a seditious poem, Count Alexander Rostov must live out his days under house arrest at a Moscow hotel. Between 1922 and 1954 he witnesses the cruelty of the regime, but always at a distance; his day-to-day existence is a charmed combination of champagne-fuelled dining and serving in the hotel’s gourmet restaurant, sleeping with a famous actress, and a special friendship with a little girl who comes under his care. There are great scenes and set pieces (the Count’s tiny room and its secret closet space, the cellar full of unlabeled wine, the bouillabaisse supper with Emile and Andrey, games and pranks with Sofia), yet the book felt endless. Because I was reading many other books at the same time, I struggled to keep up with the chronology and the minor recurring characters. I can see why so many have fallen in love with this book, but something about the tone felt that tiny bit off to me: it’s too grave for a fairytale, yet too light for a novel about life under a repressive government. (I also spotted a few annoying Americanisms.)

This book is sheer delight from beginning to end. I was so sorry to get to the end as I loved the characters and was completely immersed in their lives. Count Rostov is a true gentleman in every sense of the word. The indignities thrust upon him by the Russian revolution were accepted by him with grace and humour. The account of his life in the Metropol Hotel is thoroughly absorbing. I highly recommend this book.