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A Gentleman in Moscow

By: Amor Towles
Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
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Publisher's Summary

Soon to be a major TV series starring Kenneth Branagh.

The Times Book of the Year 2017
A Sunday Times Book of the Year 2017
A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2017
A Daily Express Book of the Year 2017
An Irish Times Book of the Year 2017
One of Barack Obama's Best Books of 2017
Nominated for the 2018 Independent Booksellers Week Award

On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. 

Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. 

Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

©2017 Amor Towles (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about A Gentleman in Moscow

Average Customer Ratings
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    3 out of 5 stars

Description overload

I could not get into this story. It was too wordy for me and I felt I was in an English class. I am sure it is a great book for many but I returned it as I kept falling asleep as I listened.

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20 people found this helpful

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buy the book

i was the only one in our bookclub of 6 who didn't absolutely love this book. I struggled with following the nuances that are pivotal to the plot. My suggestion would be to read the book.

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15 people found this helpful

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Spectacular

A gripping tale of history and personalities.

I will be passing this book to all my family and friends with my upmost recommendation.

Truly a fantastic book.

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13 people found this helpful

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A World in Miniture

This book takes you on a journey inside a snow globe with a cast of mostly loveable characters. A whole world opens up from within the confines of a single building. It’s simply magical. Brilliant writing and exceptional narration.

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12 people found this helpful

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a contemporary spin on a classic Russian style

A delightful listen. This story moves a little slowly (typical for Russian literature) but is full of great little anecdotes, charming characters and interesting tid bits of Russian history. definitely worth a listen

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7 people found this helpful

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An unexpected pleasure

Slow to start but a delightful story and characters. Well read but marvelously written. Highly recommended.

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6 people found this helpful

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Excellent

Wonderful characters and well read.
Thoroughly recommend. This is a book that can be revisited with relish.

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6 people found this helpful

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An inspiring read.

loved this book. The main character has some good life lessons. sad when it finished.

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6 people found this helpful

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Fantastic,

Great story, beautifully written and narrated,totally consuming. I couldn't stop listening, had to know what was going to happen next.

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4 people found this helpful

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Boring

This book is really hard to stick with and very la Di dah posh but just a bit boring.
I’m only half way though maybe it picks up...

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Gone Fishing
  • 04-11-2019

An artfully woven story, beautifully narrated.

The story of a young aristocratic Russian gentleman who is arrested and tried for being an aristocrat and who is banished to a small room in the Attic of the hotel in which he has been living. We meet the staff and visitors to the hotel as he adapts to his new life and learn of the goings on in Russia as the country transitions to communism.
The Count is an honest, fair minded, ethical man who sees the good in people and he turns out to be the luckiest man in Russia.
Narrated in an aristocratic english voice that adds depth and colour to the story.
Lots of period details and nicely developed other characters.
Totally immersing.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 21-10-2019

Understated Genius!

The dialogue alone makes this book a masterpiece. But add to that the dramatic historical backdrop, the emotional eloquence of the characters and the author's ability to lift images off the page, and you have a truly memorable epic! What a pity I can never read this for the first time again!

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Imtiaz
  • 07-03-2021

One of the best audio books I have listened to.

Rich with contents of history and culture, deep and eloquent characters, this books was an absolute delight to listen to. The narration was just as wonderful.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 22-04-2021

Brilliant, compulsive read

a superbly structural novel of communist Russian intrigued. beautifully written, with tremendous intrigue and humour

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2 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 04-08-2022

A sweet story read in a very annoying way

Every single character is read to sound as if they are a pompous simpleton child or as if they are being aimed at children or simpletons who cannot understand basic dialogue. Very unnatural and stilted narration. The story was sweet - had a bit of an episodic ‘Downton Abbey’ story arch in which there never really felt like there was ever any real threat of violence or capture whilst the protagonists and his companions got into an assortment of scrapes.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • Adrian
  • 12-10-2021

A true gentleman

An old school gentleman with wit and charm. Behind his stoic civility, he doesn't complain, we'll aware his status in society has been revised. But through his goodness to others he masterfully plans his redemption. Inspiring and uplifting to the end..

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1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-03-2021

A real treat.

This is a meaty story, elegantly told, and beautifully presented. I was sorry when it ended and I would no longer share the lives of the Metropol inhabitants. Just the right ending too.

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  • charmaine kendal
  • 26-02-2021

Brilliant

Brilliant book very well read. Character changes were excellent. The plotline is very clever and the characters delightfully drawn. Wonderful reflection of the various political movements in Russia

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  • Glen Mollink
  • 27-06-2019

Wonderful story

What and amazing, beautiful and uplifting story so well written and elegantly read. Would recommend highly.

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  • Arlene
  • 14-11-2018

beautiful narration

I loved this book from start to finish. Eloquently narrated and with descriptions that lifted me right into the era and place. I dreaded the end and would have loved it to carry on.

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  • SteveA
  • 14-02-2019

Rewarding if you're patient with it.

Really enjoyable and somewhat unusual story of a Russian aristocrat sentenced to house arrest in the Hotel Metropole in Moscow, having narrowly escaped execution after the revolution. However, this book doesn't give its pleasures away easily. It's written with technical precision and sometimes early on seemed like an exercise in lexicography rather than a flowing tale. I'm not sure if I would have had the patience with the regular book, that a few long drives allowed me to get drawn into the audio book. But I'm glad I did. Ultimately though, the characters emerge deeply, and the observations underpin a story which spins well beyond the confines of the Metropole. Narration is precise and a great fit for the style of the book.

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83 people found this helpful

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  • suze
  • 07-12-2018

I love this and now I feel bereft

I want this story to go on and on. The characters I've come to know and love loom large in my imagination. They feel so real that I can almost touch them if I reach back in time.
The Metropol hotel and all its cast of characters - all brought to life by the brilliant narration - will stay with me forever. The sounds and smells, the music and food - they are seared in my memory. It feels like the end of a thrilling affair.
Thank you, Amor Towles, for the taking me on this journey.

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52 people found this helpful

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  • barjil
  • 21-02-2019

Spoiled by reader

This is a superb book but I wish I had chosen to read it rather than listen as the reader's all too frequent mispronunciations set my teeth on edge.

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  • Gillian
  • 19-01-2019

Oh dear, I’m going to have to buy the book...

This is a great story, a fascinating setting, well written, with great charming and intriguing characters. I’m really entranced by the book... but I am going to have to give up on this reading because of the extraordinary and highly irritating pronunciation errors. This is read by a man with a classic English accent, but who persists in using American pronunciations - but only for certain words! There are also numerous errors of emphasis, which should have been picked up by the editor. It is slowly driving me mad... so the only way to finish this intriguing book will be to read it to myself. How tiresome!

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47 people found this helpful

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  • Bean
  • 29-11-2018

The best book I’ve listened and read in a long time

Cannot recommend this highly enough
I laughed, I cried and I started listening as I was on holiday but it was soooo sooo good that o wanted to read the words as well. So ended up doing both. And I’ll be buying a paper copy as well as I want to give to my mum
Just superb 5*

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43 people found this helpful

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  • Vicuña
  • 04-01-2019

A classic

A brilliantly subversive morality tale. Filled with humour,pathos, a cast of colourful characters.

Against a backdrop of the rise of Stalinism, the scope is epic. Complex plot with sublime twists. I have over 500 audiobooks and this is near the top of my top 10 outstanding

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  • ITC
  • 05-02-2020

Pretentious boring drivel...

This is one of those books that people will state ‘If you don’t get it, you’re not intelligent enough’. Well, I beg to differ. There’s no story, no conflict and no character arcs. It’s basically a guy having day to day conversations with random people for 15 hours. Nothing happens! 10 minutes of an assembled railway union arguing over wether or not the word ‘facilitate’ should be replaced with ‘enable and insure’ and rambling on about using a hammer, is the kind of typical narrative you’ll find throughout in the absence of story. The performers voice is the same for each character, but that’s ok, as none of the characters are memorable anyway, the annoying little girl aside. Simply the worst book I have ever read. Totally pointless.

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34 people found this helpful

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  • LP
  • 21-12-2018

Heartbroken...

... that I’ve finished listening to this wonderful book. My life will be empty without the courteous, witty and charming Count Rostov. What a fabulous way to stride twentieth-century Russian history as it flows in, out and around the Hotel Metropol. The genius of the story is the weaving in of tiny details that eventually coalesce to form a perfect and satisfactory conclusion to a brilliant plot. It’s superbly narrated, each character springing to life with pitch-perfect accents and nuances. A delight of a book.

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29 people found this helpful

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  • Miss B. March
  • 02-02-2019

A lesson in philosophy

This is one of the most significant books I have read. The last that left me feeling this was was 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' Apart from the gorgeous use of language, the faultless narration and the compelling story line, this was a delicious lesson in philosophy, history, love, loss and manners. What a treat!

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23 people found this helpful

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  • Mr.
  • 15-01-2019

Wonderful book, shame about careless pronunciation

Completely agree with all the other reviews. Splendid book - spoiled for me by the absolutely infuriating, liberally peppered mispronunciations of certain names and words. Once might be fine. Two or three times might be forgivable - and maybe I'm just being overly pedantic - but not even being able to pronounce fairly standard words like 'Ermine' or 'Cossack' correctly...

Surely the reader could have done a little research to round off what is otherwise a beautifully read book. End of rant!

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