A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

LOVED it! Although I read this some months ago I've thought about it often. It is an elegantly written novel about a sophisticated gentleman, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. In 1913 he wrote a poem which called for political change. The story begins in 1922, at the conclusion of the Bolshevik revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union when many aristocrats are being executed. That poem saves his life. Instead of death, he is sentenced by a tribunal to life arrest at Moscow's Grand Metropole Hotel, across the street from the Russian embassy. Given this sentence, the Count, who is accustomed to the finer things in life, finds a way to master his circumstances rather than be mastered by them.

Amor Towles is a gifted storyteller and this beautifully written tale has memorable characters. He recreates a world and a time so clearly that you long to be there with his characters. The story takes place entirely in one location, but it is a location that attracts the world inside its revolving doors and because of the author's writing style you feel as if you ARE there. It would absolutely make a delightful movie. There is a smattering of Russian history from 1922 - 1954, a bit of mystery and intrigue, pathos and humor.
It made me cry in the end...happy tears. I have often thought about the Count, the other characters, and the hotel itself since its conclusion and will remember it with pleasure for a long time.

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