Table For Two

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

FROM THE AUTHOR OF A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY AND RULES OF CIVILITY

'A knockout . . . Table for Two is a winner'
NEW YORK TIMES

'There is no better writer working today'
CHRIS CLEAVE

'He makes it all seem effortless'
TANA FRENCH

'A gem of a book that springs delights and surprises on every page'
JEFFREY ARCHER

'There is a great deal to relish in Table for Two . . . If you take only one book on holiday this summer, you couldn't ask for a better literary capsule wardrobe'
THE TIMES

Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In the novella, 'Eve in Hollywood', Towles returns to one of the characters at the heart of his debut novel Rules of Civility: the indomitable Evelyn Ross, who leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from multiple points of view, 'Eve in Hollywood' describes how Towles' heroine crafts a new future for herself and others in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with wit, humour and sophistication, Table for Two is a glittering and stylish offering from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility.

Praise for The Lincoln Highway:

"A rollicking cross-country adventure, rife with unforgettable characters, vivid scenery and suspense
that will keep readers flying through the pages." Time

"Elegantly constructed and compulsively readable . . . hitch onto this delightful tour de force and you'll be pulled straight through to the end, helpless against the inventive exuberance of Towles' storytelling." NPR

"Wise and wildly entertaining . . . Towles goes all in on the kind of episodic, exuberant narrative
haywire found in myth or Homeric epic." The New York Times Book Review


Instant Sunday Times bestseller, May 2024

Review: Aficionados of Amor Towles 's carefully crafted fiction will be thrilled by this latest collection of elegantly presented short stories along with a novella. The tales focus on vignettes of turn-of-millennium New York life, while the longer Eve in Hollywood sees the reappearance of Rules of Civility's inimitable Evelyn Ross in 1930s Los Angeles. The recent adaptation A Gentleman in Moscow has raised the author's profile to new heights, and long-standing admirers and new readers alike will take great delight in this entertaining collection. A new novel soon please, Mr Towles * Observer *
If you only take one book on holiday... Make it Amor Towles' short stories... Towles has a genius for immersive scene-setting, and most of Table for Two, a collection of six short stories and a novella, feels more mythically New York than a Woody Allen storyboard painted by Edward Hopper... There is a great deal to relish in Table for Two... The collection is varied but hangs so well together. If you take only one book on holiday this summer, you couldn't ask for a better literary capsule wardrobe * The Times *
A knockout collection . . . Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner * New York Times *
Amor Towles reminds you why books still do it best. Joyous, discreet and a pleasure to read, each timeless story reconnects you with your own humanity. Every perfect sentence leaves you nodding in wonder. There is no better writer working today -- Chris Cleave
He makes it all seem effortless -- Tana French