A television adaptation of Amor Towles's 2016 novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, is set to premiere on Paramount+ later this month. The story follows Russian aristocrat Alexander Ilyich Rostov, sentenced to permanent house arrest in Moscow's Hotel Metropol after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. As the years of his confinement pass, Count Rostov befriends hotel staff and guests and even becomes caretaker for a young girl whose parents disappear in Siberia. The Count's personal history and the hotel's many foreign guests allow him to reflect on pivotal moments of the Cold War and the complexities of life under Soviet rule. Towles's novel, his second after Rules of Civility (2011), was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize in Fiction & Literature and received positive reviews for its combination of charm and philosophical depth. It has sold more than two million copies.
Ewan McGregor stars as Count Rostov in the Paramount+ adaptation. The rest of the cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Leah Harvey, Johnny Harris, and Paul Ready. Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small) serves as showrunner and writer. Sam Miller directs the first episode, which premieres on March 29. Towles's most recent book is The Lincoln Highway (2021). A Gentleman in Moscow is available in paperback from Penguin Books ($18). --Tobias Mutter
