A Gentleman in Moscow is a novel by Amor Towles. The novel was published by Viking Publishers on the 6th of September 2016. The audio version was read by Nicholas Guy Smith and released by Penguin Random House. His previous novel, Rules of Civility was a New York bestseller, released in 2011. A Gentleman in Moscow received several acknowledgments including the 2016 Kirkus Prize: Fiction and Literature. It was also long listed for a nomination in the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award. The novel is set to be adapted into a television series. Critically acclaimed actor Kenneth Branagh is set to play the lead role of The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov and act as producer. The series is produced by Entertainment One and directed by Tom Harper.
A Gentleman in Moscow is about a Russian aristocrat, The Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to life inside a Metropol hotel in Moscow. Unlike his previous effort, A Gentleman in Moscow brings the reader into an era in Russian society that is ever-changing. Every character in the novel either has to adapt and accept their new normal or face the inevitable end. Beginning in the 1920s, the novel spans about three decades. At that time, we get to witness Alexander as a man who can’t let go of his past life. He finds it impossible to conform to the Russian communist society. In his confinement, Alexander learns to find purpose and begins to appreciate life with little things like work, family, and friendships. A Gentleman in Moscow is loaded with immense humor and a dedicated cast of characters. The scenes are as explosive as you’d expect, fulfilling the reader in rapid succession. The novel focuses its psyche on the protagonist; Alexander’s search for a new purpose and meaning to his life gives this novel the brimming sense of life it oozes to its readers.
A Gentleman in Moscow received positive reviews from critics who praised its philosophical insight, charm and individual wisdom. The New York Times praised the novel’s satisfying conclusion and the choice to go with far more complex themes underneath the most obvious choices: socio-political, duty, and friendship. Amor’s greatest tool in the novel is the three-decade-long transformation of these characters. Alexander’s transformation is more impeccable than most. The novel is a statement to itself as it reads, “if a man does not master his circumstances, he is bound to be mastered by them.”
