A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
Summary
Sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal to spend the rest of his life confined within Moscow's grand Metropol Hotel, aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov builds a rich, resourceful existence within its walls across more than three decades of Soviet history, from Stalin's purges through the Cold War. Towles uses the hotel's confined but richly detailed world to explore dignity, adaptability, and the persistence of grace under a regime built to crush both. The novel became a beloved book club favorite, praised for its warmth, wit, and old fashioned narrative pleasure.
Historical Context & Significance
The 2016 National Book Award for fiction went to Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, which also won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Towles's novel received no major literary prize despite its enormous and enduring popularity with readers.