The next Bellevue Rotary Book Group discussion will be Wednesday, January 17, from 7:00‑9:00PM. Thanks to Tom Eckhart for offering to host this meeting. The next book for discussion will be “A Gentleman in Moscow,” by Amor Towles (locally, the #3 best seller in Hard Cover Fiction).

If you have an EVEN numbered birth year, please bring a bottle of wine to share.

If you (your partner) plan on participating, please RSVP to Margaret Doman.

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Publisher’s summary:

A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

A sampling of reviews:

“Marvelous.” — Chicago Tribune

“The novel buzzes with the energy of numerous adventures, love affairs, twists of fate and silly antics.” — The Wall Street Journal

“A winning, stylish novel.” — NPR.org

“Enjoyable, elegant.” — Seattle Times

“The perfect book to curl up with while the world goes by outside your window.” — Refinery29

“Towles gets good mileage from the considerable charm of his protagonist and the peculiar world he inhabits.” — The New Yorker

“In all ways a great novel, a nonstop pleasure brimming with charm, personal wisdom, and philosophic insight … This is a book in which the cruelties of the age can’t begin to erase the glories of real human connection and the memories it leaves behind. A masterly encapsulation of modern Russian history …” — Kirkus Reviews