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 the first chapter of a Dickens novel then everything is probably going to be fine.

By the end of the year she'd learned:

- How to launch a paper airplane high over Park Avenue

- How to live like a redhead

- How to insist upon the very best

- That the word 'yes' can be a poison

- and the Rules of Civility.

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

 

Details

ISBN: 9781444708875
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 5 Jan 2012
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication City, Country: United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.7(H) x 12.9(L) x 2.3(W)
Weight (gm): 239

 

Reviews

Impossibly glamorous . . . Towles conjures up vintage New York so marvellously that it made me feel nostalgic for a place I've never been to. - The Times

Achingly stylish...witty, slick production, replete with dark intrigue, period details, and a suitably Katharine Hepburn-like heroine - Guardian

The summer's must-read: gripping and beautiful - Sunday Times

Terrific. A smart, witty, charming dry-martini of a novel - David Nicholls, author of One Day

Irresistible... A cross between Dorothy Parker and Holly Golightly, Katey Kontent is a priceless narrator in her own right - the brains of a bluestocking with the legs of a flapper and the mores of Carrie Bradshaw - Elena Seymenliyska, Telegraph

This is a flesh-and-blood tale you believe in, with fabulous period detail. It's all too rare to find a fun, glamorous, semi-literary tale to get lost in... While you're lost in the whirl of silk stockings, fur and hip flasks, all you care about is what Katey Kontent does next - Viv Groskop, Observer

Because who doesn't want to be transported to Thirties Manhattan? - Lucy Mangan

Jazz-age New York is the setting for martinis and girls on the make in Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. As glamorous as it is gut-wrenching, this is the summer's must-read - ELLE

 

Author Biography

Amor Towles has written fiction which has appeared in The Paris Review. This is his first novel. He lives in New York.