Amor Towles (born 1964) is an American novelist. He is best known for his bestselling novels Rules of Civility (2011),^[1] A Gentleman in Moscow (2016),^[2] and The Lincoln Highway (2021).^[3] Towles began writing following a career in investment banking.

Towles was born and raised in Boston, to Stokley Porter Towles, an investment banker at Brown Brothers Harriman and a philanthropist, and Holly Hollingsworth. His parents later divorced. He has a brother, Stokley Jr.; a sister, Kimbrough; and two stepbrothers.^[4] When Towles was 10 years old, he threw a bottle with a message into the Atlantic Ocean. Several weeks later, he received a letter from Harrison Salisbury, then managing editor of The New York Times, who had found the bottle. Towles and Salisbury corresponded for many years afterward.^[5]

He graduated from Yale College and received a Master of Arts degree in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. The thesis for his M.A. titled Temptations of Pleasure was published in The Paris Review in 1989.^[6]

After graduating from Yale University, Towles was set to teach in China on a two-year fellowship from the Yale China Association. However, this was abruptly canceled due to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.^[7] From 1991 to 2012, he worked as an investment manager and director of research at Select Equity Group in New York.^[8][9]

When Towles was a young man, he credited Peter Matthiessen, nature writer, novelist, and one of the founders of The Paris Review, as the primary inspiration for writing novels.^[10] Towles' first novel, Rules of Civility, was successful beyond his expectations.^[11]

His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, which was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for 59 weeks,^[12] was a finalist for the 2016 Kirkus Prize for Fiction.^[13] It was also longlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.^[14] A television adaptation starring Ewan McGregor was released on Paramount+ in March 2024.^[15]

Towles' third novel, The Lincoln Highway, was published on October 5, 2021.^[16] It was chosen by Amazon as the best book of 2021.^[17] As of May 15, 2022, it had been on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 30 weeks.^[18] In April 2024, Towles released a book of short fiction titled Table for Two.^[6]

Towles resides in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City, with his wife Maggie, their son Stokley, and their daughter Esmé.^[19] Towles is a collector of fine art and antiques.^[19]

• 2016 Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction

• Rules of Civility: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2011. ISBN 978-0-670-02269-4.
• Eve in Hollywood: A Penguin Special (collection of six interlinked short stories). Penguin. 2013. ISBN 978-1-101-63092-1.
• A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2016. ISBN 978-0-670-02619-7.
• You Have Arrived at Your Destination (novella). Forward. Vol. 4. Amazon Original Stories. 2019. ASIN B07VBCYTGR.^[20]
• The Lincoln Highway: A Novel. New York: Viking. 2021. ISBN 978-0-7352-2235-9.
• Table for Two. Viking Press. 2024-04-02. ISBN 978-0-593-29637-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)^[21][22][23]

• "Channel a More Romantic Era of Transatlantic Travel" (2016)^[24]

• Amor Towles official author website