Amor Towles
Autor von Ein Gentleman in Moskau
Über den Autor
Amor Towles grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. His novel, "Rules of Civility" reached the bestseller lists of The New York Times, the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. The book mehr anzeigen was rated by The Wall Street Journal as one of the ten best works of fiction in 2011. The book has been published in 15 languages. In the fall of 2012, the novel was optioned to be made into a feature film. Viking/Penguin published Towles's next novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, on September 6, 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen
Bildnachweis: Amor Towles. Permission granted by publicist.
Werke von Amor Towles
The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 (2023) — Editor & Introduction — 30 Exemplare
A Whimsy of the World 14 Exemplare
A Glimpse of Stocking 3 Exemplare
Closing Time 2 Exemplare
Great-Great-Grandpa's Hat Box 2 Exemplare
The Line 2 Exemplare
Anthony Doerr & Amor Towles Collection 3 Books Set (A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility, All the Light We Cannot… (2020) 1 Exemplar
Nighthawks 1 Exemplar
Descomprometidos - eBook 1 Exemplar
Zugehörige Werke
Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1964
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Land (für Karte)
- USA
- Geburtsort
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Wohnorte
- Manhattan, New York, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA - Ausbildung
- Yale College
Stanford University - Berufe
- investor
novelist - Kurzbiographie
- Amor Towles (born 1964) is an American novelist. He is best known for his bestselling novels Rules of Civility (2011) and A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), the latter of which made him a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize.
Towles was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. When Towles was 10 years old, he threw a bottle with a message inside into the Atlantic Ocean. Several weeks later, he received a letter from Harrison Salisbury, who was then the managing editor of The New York Times. Towles and Salisbury corresponded for many years afterward.
After graduating from Yale University. Towles was set to teach in China on a two-year fellowship from the Yale China Association. However, this was abruptly canceled due to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
From 1991-2012, he worked as an investment banker and director of research at Select Equity Group in New York.
When Towles was a younger man, he credits renowned nature writer, novelist and one of the founders of The Paris Review, Peter Matthiessen, as the primary inspiration for writing novels. Towles' first book Rules of Civility was successful beyond his expectations; so much so that the proceeds from the book afforded him the luxury of retirement from investment banking so that he could pursue writing full time.
Towles resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City, with his wife, Maggie, their son, Stokley, and their daughter, Esmé. Towles is a collector of fine-art and antiques.
Mitglieder
Diskussionen
October 2020: Amor Towles in Monthly Author Reads (November 2020)
Group Read: Rules of Civility in 75 Books Challenge for 2017 (April 2019)
A Gentleman in Moscow in The Green Dragon (November 2017)
Rezensionen
Adult Book Club Kit : A gentleman in Moscow von Amor Towles
Brilliant, warm, engaging, moving, satisfying.
It is the business of the times to change, Mr. Halecki. And it is the business of gentlemen to change with them."
A charming novel. Amor Towles appears to belong to the genre I call faux-literature: stories with a bit of depth, historical or otherwise, and a writing style that is painted over with panache if not quite artistry. (It was no surprise to see that Towles has been associated with the novels of Scott Fitzgerald; he is the supreme purveyor of faux-literature.) There's nothing wrong with the genre at all - it may even be helpful in bringing avid readers to the pure stuff - but for someone like myself, I often find it, like Fitzgerald, grating. Perhaps it's the feeling a genuine gastronome would have on seeing my idea of "high-class" food: serving a reheated supermarket crêpe with a dusting of icing sugar, or upping the glamour of some potato chips by adding store-bought pâté. It's delightful and invigorating, but not quite the same. One begins to feel like it's a false promise for those who have never experienced haute cuisine, and a bald compromise for those who have... even if it makes me personally rather satisfied.
All of which is a harsh way of saying that - contrary to my own expectations - I adored this book. Positively revelled in it. Taking place over three decades, and set almost exclusively in one hotel in Moscow's theatre district, Towles' novel fuses character development with lush prose, a reasonably insightful long-game view of the rise of the Soviet Union, and - most importantly - a well-realised spirit of place. We spend so much time in the Metropol, that Towles has set himself an impressive task to continue to make the space surprising and enchanting, and he succeeds almost all the time.
If I'm honest, the author's attempts to be "literary" frustrated me as often as they appealed. Fair enough, he's writing a novel that is part-folk tale or allegory; this can forgive some of the flights of fancy. Perhaps I should accept that the moments that would be traditional narrative climaxes are often underserved. Perhaps I can even forgive the slightly twee footnotes, and the comic moments of Russians attempting to understand mid-20th century American culture. The novel is flirting with modernism without giving up its popular fiction niche, which is a tango that has tangled up greater writers than he. I suppose I could even invert my statement: for every moment that frustrated me, there was one that appealed. I find it very hard to dislike a writer who conjures up a scene in which actors start improvising when the lights go out during a performance of The Seagull, doing so in perfect Chekhov-ese (and transcribed on the page in script format). I genuinely bumped the book up a star because of that scene.
Will you like this book? Very probably. It appears everyone does. (My library has reduced the borrowing period on this book because of high demand!) The mingling of history and comedy with unashamedly art deco prose is an intoxicating combination for nostalgics, romantics, and tragics, every one. And even for those of us who aren't popular readers, it's a treat.… (mehr)
A charming novel. Amor Towles appears to belong to the genre I call faux-literature: stories with a bit of depth, historical or otherwise, and a writing style that is painted over with panache if not quite artistry. (It was no surprise to see that Towles has been associated with the novels of Scott Fitzgerald; he is the supreme purveyor of faux-literature.) There's nothing wrong with the genre at all - it may even be helpful in bringing avid readers to the pure stuff - but for someone like myself, I often find it, like Fitzgerald, grating. Perhaps it's the feeling a genuine gastronome would have on seeing my idea of "high-class" food: serving a reheated supermarket crêpe with a dusting of icing sugar, or upping the glamour of some potato chips by adding store-bought pâté. It's delightful and invigorating, but not quite the same. One begins to feel like it's a false promise for those who have never experienced haute cuisine, and a bald compromise for those who have... even if it makes me personally rather satisfied.
All of which is a harsh way of saying that - contrary to my own expectations - I adored this book. Positively revelled in it. Taking place over three decades, and set almost exclusively in one hotel in Moscow's theatre district, Towles' novel fuses character development with lush prose, a reasonably insightful long-game view of the rise of the Soviet Union, and - most importantly - a well-realised spirit of place. We spend so much time in the Metropol, that Towles has set himself an impressive task to continue to make the space surprising and enchanting, and he succeeds almost all the time.
If I'm honest, the author's attempts to be "literary" frustrated me as often as they appealed. Fair enough, he's writing a novel that is part-folk tale or allegory; this can forgive some of the flights of fancy. Perhaps I should accept that the moments that would be traditional narrative climaxes are often underserved. Perhaps I can even forgive the slightly twee footnotes, and the comic moments of Russians attempting to understand mid-20th century American culture. The novel is flirting with modernism without giving up its popular fiction niche, which is a tango that has tangled up greater writers than he. I suppose I could even invert my statement: for every moment that frustrated me, there was one that appealed. I find it very hard to dislike a writer who conjures up a scene in which actors start improvising when the lights go out during a performance of The Seagull, doing so in perfect Chekhov-ese (and transcribed on the page in script format). I genuinely bumped the book up a star because of that scene.
Will you like this book? Very probably. It appears everyone does. (My library has reduced the borrowing period on this book because of high demand!) The mingling of history and comedy with unashamedly art deco prose is an intoxicating combination for nostalgics, romantics, and tragics, every one. And even for those of us who aren't popular readers, it's a treat.… (mehr)
This delightful collection, six short stories and a novella, seems like an in-between the big novels for Towles, who is a writer who can perfectly balance character study with slimmer plotting. The stories all have little twisty endings that you might or might not see coming, but either way, they add up to a most enjoyable journey. The Line is about a muzhik who transfers his genial customer skills from Russia to NYC; The Ballad of Timothy Touchett features a forger and his employer; Hasta Luego’s main character is a lovable man who falls off the wagon and relies on a stranger to catch him; I Will Survive centers the joy of roller disco; The Bootlegger takes place at Carnegie Hall, where a noveau riche couple encounters a devoted symphony lover; and The DeDomenico Fragment describes the difficult splitting of an inherited painting. The novella, Eve in Hollywood, is a sequel to Rules Of Civility, his outstanding first novel, and can be read joyously as a stand-alone. Those of us who savor every word Towles writes will be pleased to sink into the warmth of his writing and into his obvious love for humanity without judgment, quite rare these days.… (mehr)
Really enjoyed it. Wonderful construction, turns of phrase and overall message of decency.
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