A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles

One night, returning from a party, the very thought of the Count’s precious little gesture was so infuriating that when she undressed she not only threw her red silk gown on the floor, she instructed her staff that it was not to be touched. Each night that followed, she dumped another outfit on the floor. Dresses and blouses of velvet and silk from London and Paris, the more expensive the better. Dumped here on the bathroom floor and there by the dustbin. In a word, wherever it suited her.

Anna Urbanova This scene, in which the tempestuous Anna Urbanova refuses to pick up her clothes, throws them out the window into the street, and then sheepishly sneaks out in the middle of the night to retrieve them, is drawn from events that played out between my parents shortly after their marriage. Although in their case, it was my mother who wouldn’t pick up her clothes and my father who threw them out the window. I’ll leave it to you to guess who went out in the middle of the night to pick them back up.