Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is spared by the Bolsheviks but sentenced to house arrest in the upscale Metropol hotel in Moscow in 1922. Stuck inside this former man of leisure must craft a life for himself, a full life, and with the help of many unlikely friends that is exactly what he accomplishes.
I will freely admit that I mostly read for plot; the faster and twistier the better. Language, the actual skill of the author crafting his words, comes way after setting, character development and all those other literary mechanisms in my mind. But every once in a great while a book is so beautifully written that I can’t help but notice and be swept away. This is that book. The idea of reading about a man under house arrest (hotel arrest) for decades held no interest for me, but the buzz kept growing and growing so I eventually decided to give it a listen. And that was that. I found myself NOT listening to it because I wanted the book to go on and on. I was sad when it ended, not because the ending was sad, but because I was sad it was over. This is a book not to be missed.
