Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Amor Towles, author of The Rules of Civility, which has been selling in hardback and paperback in my bookstore for seemingly the last decade or so! Now with his new novel A Gentleman in Moscow (Mosco)I am afraid that he will be taking up too much space in our crowded shop.

Suffice it to say that The Rules of Civility was a lovely book, which remains one of our best sellers, in part because we all tell everyone to read it. I have sent at least ten copies to friends.

This new book, set in another land and another time is of equal quality and introduces us to another side of an author whose books will one day, after I am gone, be in our classics section.

A Gentleman in Moscow explores a world in which a life is lived with pleasure curiosity and purpose although that life is constrained by space and by imprisonment. Characters are drawn to our protagonist through his charm, his kindness and his knowledge.

As he gives (as we all should) so he receives and so the book is suffused with love and possibility and helps the reader to remember that what is worthwhile in life is not measured in travels or houses or jewels or automobiles, but in our relationships with those that we love and the corollary relations with those who may not be ladies or gentleman, so with that ladies and gentlemen, welcome Amor and thanks for joining us once again on The Avid Reader.