A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
★ Top 25 book of 2016 · #16 on Best Books of 2016
This 2016 novel is the second book from Amor Towles, arriving five years after his bestselling debut, Rules of Civility. The source offers little else about its story, so readers will want to discover it themselves.
Best for: Readers who loved Rules of Civility and want Towles's next novel
A Gentleman in Moscow is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar.
What A Gentleman in Moscow is about
Count Alexander Rostov is brought before a Bolshevik tribunal and charged as a social parasite. A revolutionary poem attributed to him spares his life, but the sentence is house arrest for life inside the Hotel Metropol in central Moscow. He is moved from a grand suite to cramped servants' quarters on the sixth floor.
Confined to one building, the Count builds a world within it. He befriends a seamstress, a chef, a maître d' who once juggled in a circus, an actress and a one-eyed cat. He also forms a lasting bond with nine-year-old Nina Kulikova, and years later a request from Nina changes his life by making him a father figure to a gifted young girl.
Spanning decades from the early Soviet era to the start of the Cold War, Amor Towles's second novel is witty, elegant and bittersweet. It is a good fit for readers who love rich characters, history and a story about dignity and friendship.
A Gentleman in Moscow on the Best Books of 2016
A Gentleman in Moscow came out in 2016. Of the 68 books first published in 2016 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #16 on our Best Books of 2016 list.
Why it made the list: 1,020 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (71 ratings); 48 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2016 list
- The Way I Used to Be Amber Smith, #14
- Culpa Tuya Mercedes Ron, #15
- Dark Matter Blake Crouch, #17
- A Thousand Boy Kisses Tillie Cole, #18
See all Best Books of 2016 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2015 Best Books of 2017.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 880 want to read it, 48 are reading it now and 92 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 from 71 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 82 | 55% |
| Reader love | 35 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 78 | 20% |
Questions about A Gentleman in Moscow
When was A Gentleman in Moscow published?
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles was first published in 2016.
Was A Gentleman in Moscow one of the best books of 2016?
A Gentleman in Moscow is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar. 1,020 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (71 ratings); 48 are reading it right now.
Why is A Gentleman in Moscow on the Best Books of 2016 list?
1,020 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (71 ratings); 48 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2016
- It Ends with Us Colleen Hoover, #1
- Dog Man Dav Pilkey, #2
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson, #3
- Never Split the Difference Chris Voss, #4
- The Hidden Oracle Rick Riordan, #5
- Born a Crime Trevor Noah, #6
See the full Best Books of 2016, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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