Rules of Civility

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

In a jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn’t afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew:

the location of every old church in Manhattan
how to sneak into the cinema
how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year
and that if you can still lose yourself in a Dickens novel then everything is going to be fine.

By the end of the year she’d learned:

how to live like a redhead
and insist upon the very best;
that riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat,
chance encounters can be fated, and the word ‘yes’ can be a poison.

That’s how quickly New York City comes about, like a weathervane, or the head of a cobra. Time tells which.

‘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