Table for Two
Fictions
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- ¥2,000
Publisher Description
A New York Times Bestseller
“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.” —Los Angeles Times
“The book spans the 20th century, bringing characters into tableaus of deceit and desire. Beneath his coifed prose Towles is a master of the shiv, the bait and switch; we see the flash of light before the shock wave strikes, often in the final sentence. . . . Table for Two delivers the kick of a martini served in the Polo Lounge.” – The New York Times Book Review
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. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how one of Towles’s most beloved characters, the indomitable Evelyn Ross from Rules of Civility, crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of 1930s Los Angeles.
Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Amor Towles’ Table for Two is full of stories capturing small moments that speak volumes about the characters’ lives. In this batch of New York City tales set in the 2000s, nobody’s completely what they seem—whether it’s the man sneakily recording classical concerts for unexpected reasons, the forger who makes money by faking famous novelists’ signatures, or the gregarious traveling businessman with an unmanageable secret. The book’s second half will thrill fans of Towles’ debut novel, Rules of Civility. It’s a novella following one of that book’s characters, Eve, on her late-1930s Los Angeles adventures. In the Hollywood of George Cukor and Jack Warner, Eve befriends Olivia de Havilland and slips into enough seamy situations to make the story feel like a great ’30s film unto itself. Towles’ clean, economical style finds room for delicious details, like the joy of a well-packed toiletry kit or the adorably outdated animation in Rankin-Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He never hits us over the head with the deeper meaning, but once we sussed it out ourselves, it hit our heads and our hearts simultaneously with a big, beautiful wallop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Towles (The Lincoln Highway) returns with an enchanting collection of stories about fateful encounters. In "The Ballad of Timothy Touchett," the young title character moves to New York City to become a novelist and works in a bookstore, where his boss pays him bonuses to forge the signatures of famous dead authors in first editions of their books. The scheme pays off for a while, until Paul Auster visits the shop and spies forgeries in two of his own works. Art and crime also dovetail in "The Bootlegger," when a Carnegie Hall concert attendee has another man thrown out for making a bootleg recording, then feels remorse after learning the man had taken to recording the concerts for his late wife when she was too ill to attend, and continued recording them after she died in order to remember her. The standout novel-length "Eve in Hollywood," a sequel to Towles's debut Rules of Civility, follows Evelyn Ross from New York City to Los Angeles in 1938, where she befriends film star Olivia de Havilland and has-been Prentice Symmons, and comes to Olivia's aid after Olivia is blackmailed with nude photos. The noirish tale is rife with double crosses, exciting chases, surprising reversals, and the vivid historical atmosphere Towles is known for. The author's fans won't want to miss this.
