Featured on The TV Book Club on More4 on 26 February 2012.

For fans of Fitzgerald and Capote, a witty, elegant fairytale of New York, set in 1938. 'If you want shopping at Bendel's, gin martinis at a debutante's mansion and jazz bands playing until 3am, RULES OF CIVILITY has it all and more ...While you're lost in the whirl of silk stockings, furs and hip flasks, all you care about is what Katey Kontent does next. Another one bartender, please' said The Observer.

Synopsis

Everything about this novel, set in 1930s New York, is achingly stylish - from the author's name to the slinky jacket design.

Katey Kontent, daughter of Russian immigrants, and Evie Ross, from the sleepy midwest, are an ambitious, wisecracking pair who, despite lack of money and connections, aim to set the city alight. A fortuitous meeting with the apparently wealthy Tinker Grey on New Year's Eve, 1937, will change the course of both their lives.  

Reviews

'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

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

'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

'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

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

'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.'

- Telegraph

'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 'My book of the year. If the unthinkable happened and I could never read another new work of fiction in 2011, I'd simply re-read this sparkling, stylish book, with yet another round of martinis as dry as the author's wit.'

- Herald

About the Author

Born in 1964, Amor Towles was raised in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University. He is a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children. Mr. Towles is an ardent fan of early 20th century painting, 1950’s jazz, 1970’s cop shows, rock & roll on vinyl, obsolete accessories, manifestoes, breakfast pastries, pasta, liquor, snow-days, Tuscany, Provence, Disneyland, Hollywood, the cast of Casablanca, 007, Captain Kirk, Bob Dylan (early, mid, and late phases), the wee hours, card games, cafés, and the cookies made by both of his grandmothers. Rules of Civility is his first novel. His only other published work is a short story cycle called “The Temptations of Pleasure” published in 1989 in Paris Review 112.   Author photo © Maggie Towles More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation