Table For Two

The instant Sunday Times bestseller

By: Amor Towles

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith Cameron

Millions of 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 Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross 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 seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age.

Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction.

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

Critic reviews

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

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

A knockout collection . . . Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner

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)

Towles is a craftsman

Superb ... This may be Towles' best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef's main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart

Delightful

There’s more than a mischievous glint of irony in these scintillating, sly stories from Towles. Set in new York and L.A. the city locations are fertile territory for a writer a penchant for power plays between good sports and the unscrupulous machinations of chancers and con men… the collection closes with the brilliant Eve in Hollywood, a noirish tale of blackmail and blaggards starring Evelyn Ross, who has all the glamour and guts of an on- screen heroine. Wonderful

Storytelling of the highest order

Extraordinary writing talent. Superb stories

Like a great meal. Every course becomes your favourite until you try the next. Superb narration. Superb stories. Generational turn of phrase. Just listen to it.

Beautiful descriptive powers

Disliked the sudden change of story. But enjoyed it very much. Too many much Will recommend😄