This is an excellent novel with strong characters. It tells the compelling story of a man confined to a hotel in Russia in 1922 - a resonant theme for those of us in 2020. Definitely the best fiction I have read in the last 12 months.

Starting with this period of post-Tsarist Russia and the main character who is a former member of the aristocracy provides a cultured point of view. Through words, he describes his hotel setting as becoming smaller and smaller until young Sofia opens his eyes and changes his focus. This meeting happened by a chain of chance events, and that is the real theme of the novel - small decisions and interactions leading to life-changing events.

Though nearly all told from Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov's point of view, many other characters have solid growth and direction through the novel. Even the background characters were well written - one of my favorites was Abram, a handyman in the Hotel Metropol who also keeps bees on the roof.

A Gentleman in Moscow is Amor Towles second novel, and after reading it you may be surprised to find that he wasn't born in Russia. Another theme of this book is the literary legacy of many great Russian novelists, including Gogol, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky. Chekhov and Tolstoy play a strong part in the plot, and characters read or mention both Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Read over just a few days, I could not put this down, and look forward to reading more from this author.