Amor Towles at a Glance

Full Name: Amor Towles

How to Pronounce: AAY-mor TOHLS

Born: 1964

Nationality: United States

Education:

• Yale University (BA)
• Stanford University (MA)

Genres:

• Contemporary fiction

Biography & Background

Amor Towles Biography

Amor Towles is an American novelist whose work often centers themes of class, ambition, and social change. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Towles worked as an investment banker in New York before beginning his career as a novelist. After graduating with a BA from Yale University, Towles completed an MA at Stanford University. He worked as an investment manager and researcher at New York’s Select Equity Group shortly after graduation up until his first novel, Rules of Civility (2011), became an unexpected success. Towles cites novelist and Paris Review cofounder Peter Matthiessen as an inspiration for his writing career.

Since Rules of Civility, he has published two more novels—A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) and The Lincoln Highway (2021)—as well as a short story collection titled Table for Two (2024). Though the books vary in setting from New York in the Great Depression to Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution to the prairies of the American Midwest, each explores a pivotal historical moment through the struggles and ambitions of its central characters. Each of his books was a New York Times bestseller, with A Gentleman in Moscow remaining on the list for two years. A Paramount+ miniseries based on the novel starring Ewan McGregor released in 2024.

Fun Facts About Amor Towles

• At age 10, Towles threw a message in a bottle into the Atlantic Ocean. The message was found by Harrison Salisbury, then the managing editor at The New York Times, and the two corresponded for many years.
• After completing his MA at Stanford, Towles was set to begin a two-year teaching fellowship in China, but this fellowship was cancelled due to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
• Towles is an ardent fan of the band Led Zeppelin.

Amor Towles’s Awards & Honors

• 2016 — Kirkus Prize in Fiction finalist (A Gentleman in Moscow)

Interviews & Podcasts

Hear from Amor Towles in his own words.

Interviews with Amor Towles

_{UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TELEVISION}

A Conversation with Amor Towles (May 31, 2024)

Towles reflects on his literary career and discusses the art of crafting historically grounded, character-rich fiction. This longform conversation offers insights into his meticulous research, character development process, and the enduring popularity of A Gentleman in Moscow.

_{THE NEW YORK TIMES}

The Best Book That Amor Towles Ever Received as a Gift (September 23, 2021)

In this lighthearted column, Towles shares reading habits, literary influences, and personal favorites. Readers will enjoy his witty, precise voice and get a better sense of the authors and works that influenced his style.

Podcasts with Amor Towles

_{THE BOOK SHOW}

Amor Towles (September 24, 2024)

Towles talks about the historical and literary inspirations behind The Lincoln Highway, offering commentary on how mid-century America shaped the novel’s tone and structure. The episode highlights his talent for blending narrative scope with character intimacy.

_{HOW I WRITE}

Amor Towles: The Secret to Telling a Great Story (February 14, 2024)

In this episode focused on craft, Towles breaks down his writing process and revision strategies, and discusses why structure is essential to good storytelling. A must-listen for aspiring writers or fans interested in the mechanics behind his elegant prose.

Amor Towles Quotes

After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.

— A Gentleman in Moscow (2016)

In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.

— Rules of Civility (2011)

I have no desire to have my life story written. But if it were a necessity, I would ask it be written by someone who would leave my life virtually unrecognizable. Someone like Gabriel Garcia Márquez or Franz Kafka.

— from a New York Times interview (The Best Book That Amor Towles Ever Received as a Gift, 2021)

In essence, I want to gather together a pile of brightly colored shards of glass. But rather than assemble these shards into a mosaic with a fixed image, I want to drop them into the bottom of a kaleidoscope where, thanks to a glint of sunlight and the interplay of mirrors, they render an intricate beauty which the reader can reconfigure by the slightest turn of the wrist.

— from author website (A Gentleman in Moscow Q&A, 2017)

Notable Books by Amor Towles

Rules of Civility (2011)

Towles’s debut novel transports readers to 1930s Manhattan, where aspiring writer Katey Kontent navigates social ambition and romantic entanglement in the wake of the Great Depression. With sharp dialogue and Gatsby-esque atmosphere, the novel explores reinvention, class, and the fleeting nature of opportunity.

Ready to dig in? Check out SuperSummary’s study guide.

A Gentleman in Moscow (2016)

This best-selling novel centers on Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel in the Soviet era. Despite his confinement, the Count builds a rich life and relationships that mirror Russia’s turbulent history. Towles weaves elegance, wit, and endurance into a narrative that is both sweeping and intimate.

Uncover more about this novel with SuperSummary’s study guide.

The Lincoln Highway (2021)

Set over 10 days in 1954, this roadtrip novel follows four boys as they travel across America, chasing hope, revenge, and redemption. Towles shifts perspectives and timelines with precision, crafting an epic of American identity and youthful reckoning.

Dive in to SuperSummary’s study guide.

Authors Like Amor Towles

Edith Wharton

Recommended Read: The House of Mirth (1905)

Wharton’s novel explores the social constraints and moral hypocrisies of New York’s Gilded Age through the tragic story of Lily Bart. Like Towles, Wharton offers a nuanced portrait of ambition, class, and social performance.

Explore the full breakdown with SuperSummary’s study guide.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Recommended Read: The Great Gatsby (1925)

A quintessential tale of the American dream, this novel follows Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth and love in Jazz Age New York. Fitzgerald’s lyrical style and fascination with illusion and identity resonate with Towles’s debut.

Uncover more with SuperSummary’s study guide.

Audrey Niffenegger

Recommended Read: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)

This genre-defying love story blends realism and fantasy as it follows a time-traveling man and his artist wife. Like Towles’s work, Niffenegger’s novel uses nonlinear narrative and emotional detail to explore fate, memory, and connection.

Want to learn more? Dive into SuperSummary’s study guide.

Follow Amor Towles

Connect with Amor Towles on the following platforms:

• Instagram: @amortowles
• X: @amortowles
• YouTube: @amortowles8928