THE UNFORGETTABLE DEBUT BY THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
'Terrific. A smart, witty, charming dry-martini of a novel' David Nicholls, author of One Day
'Achingly stylish . . . witty, slick production, replete with dark intrigue, period details, and a suitably Katharine Hepburn-like heroine' Guardian
'If the unthinkable happened and I could never read another new work of fiction . . . I'd simply re-read this sparkling, stylish book, with yet another round of martinis as dry as the author's wit' Herald
On the last night of 1937, Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar, ringing in the new year with her incandescent partner-in-crime Evie. The daughter of Russian immigrants, Katey knows: how to type nine million words a year, how to sneak into the cinema through the side door when no one is looking, and how to make a few dollars stretch through many martinis.
But as they say, New York comes about quickly, like a weathervane, or the head of a cobra. On that evening, Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighbouring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey from the typing pool and downtown bars into the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast.
In a city where anything is possible, it is tempting to think that you are the author of your own fate. But as Katey learns during the fateful year of 1938, the truth is a little more complicated than that...
'A love letter to the city and the era . . . Towles creates a narrative that sparkles with sentences so beautiful you'll stop and re-read them. A delicious and memorable novel that will leave you wistful - and desperate for a martini' Stylist
