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’ HeraldIn 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 Manhattanhow to sneak into the cinemahow to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a yearand 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 redheadand 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 ]]>