“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles is the story of Count Alexander Rostov — a Russian aristocrat arrested by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution.
He is saved from execution only because he had written an influential revolutionary poem in his youth. In 1922 the Count is sentenced to house arrest in the servant’s quarters of Moscow’s grand Hotel Metropol. The hardback edition of this book has sold over 1.5 million copies, and its now out in paperback.
“That premise ‘man gets trapped in hotel for 30 plus years in Soviet Russia’ was not a premise that suggested a broad readership,” said Towles about the overwhelming response to his book.
Towles is in Atlanta Thursday for a book talk at the Marcus JCC, and City Lights’ host Lois Reitzes spoke with him by phone about his book.
The event will be held in Dunwoody at Zaban Park from 7:30-9 p.m.
