A Gentleman in Moscow: The worldwide bestseller

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Osip Ivanovich Glebnikov is a former colonel of the Red Army- whom Alexander has many political conversations with.... and not only about Russia, but the rest of the world. They watch and discuss the movie Casablanca--- and the symbolism is achingly beautiful. Eve in Hollywood: A Penguin Special (collection of six interlinked short stories). Penguin. 2013. ISBN 978-1-101-63092-1.

This story was an absolute joy to read! It's buoyant, charming, and so funny. There were many insightful passages into the human soul and the comedy that comes with trying to find life's meaning. This is the rare sort of book that I want to read slowly and savor every word. Often, I found myself marveling at what I had just read, and I have to reread and relish it again it before I could move on. This connects to what you say about “The Tumblers” — “not reality but the ending one wished for.” The impact of the way “The Tumblers” ends comes from the fact that we know it isn’t the real ending; we know that the real ending is the unthinkable, and the story thinks itself into a better ending. That is very much the case with “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” also—great parallel. In 1930, the Count runs into Nina as she and three other members of the Young Communist League are about to travel east to help collectivize farms. One of the other members is a boy she later marries. When he is arrested in 1938 and sent to Siberia, Nina prepares to follow. She asks the Count to look after her young daughter, Sofia, for a month or two, while Nina goes to Siberia to find work and a place to live. The Count never sees Nina again. For the next sixteen years, he raises Sofia as his daughter, always with Marina advising him as a mentor and friend. The Count, for his part, becomes the informal tutor of a government official named Osip Glebnikov, who wants to learn—discreetly—about the values and culture of the West. Eventually, the Count and Osip move from books to films, and soon after are trading opinions about Humphrey Bogart movies.

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But, alas, sleep did not come so easily to our weary friend. Like in a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can come skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for his consideration, bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.” The last book I couldn’t put down was The Huntress, by Kate Quinn, about a small group on Nazi hunters in Vienna in 1950, hunting down a woman war criminal; and this woman’s reinvention of herself in the US after the war. Riveting historical fiction, which also features the story of a Soviet night witch. – EthosDaimon A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James and Apeirogon by Colum McCann Due to his diminished circumstances and restricted freedom, the Count has time for self-reflection. He is a brilliant conversationalist, readily discussing diverse subjects such as evolution, philosophy, Impressionism, Russian writers and poetry, food, post-revolutionary Russian society, and Russia's contributions to the world.

Count Rostov is an observer frozen in time, watching these changes come and go. He felt to me like he was from a different era from the other characters in the book. Throughout all the political turmoil, he manages to survive because, well, he’s good at everything. In the year 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov has been sentenced to House arrest at the famed Moscow Hotel Metropol. Once of the landed elite of Nizhy Novgorod, the Count must live out the rest of his days in one small hotel room. As the Bolsheviks have persevered following their revolution, no long are there ruling classes in Russia, only comrades. It is under these conditions that Count Rostov has become a former person who can no longer step outside of the Metropol. Using this premise, Amor Towles has woven prose to create an enchanting story that makes up the Count's changed course of existence. When the Bolsheviks came to power Count Rostov is sentenced to home arrest in Hotel Metropol, one of the most famous and elegant establishments of this kind in Moscow. Moved from his quarters to a small attic room, the Count needs to adjust to life in confinement and he does that with wit, dignity, poise and elegance. He treats the hotel personnel with kindness and interest and makes unforgettable friends from the employees of the hotel and guests. The most memorable is a little girl, Nina who becomes the count’s guide into the secrets of the hotel. Bachelder, Chris (October 5, 2021). "Amor Towles's New Novel Takes You on an American Road Trip". The New York Times . Retrieved October 17, 2021.This is an old fashioned sort of romance, filled with delicious detail. Save this precious book for times you really, really want to escape reality.” An early acquaintance at the hotel is nine-year-old Nina Kulikova, the daughter of a widowed Ukrainian bureaucrat, who is fascinated by princesses.