clearly knows the privileged world hes writing about, as well as the vivid, sometimes reckless characters who inhabit it. Wall Street Journal Put on some Billie Holiday, pour a dry martini and immerse yourself in the eventful life of Katey Kontent. The New York Times Book Review This very good first novel about striving and surviving in Depression-era Manhattan deserves attention.The great strength of Rules of Civility is in the sharp, sure-handed evocation of Manhattan in the late 30s. characters are youthful Americans in tricky times, trying to create authentic lives. O, the Oprah Magazine With this snappy period piece, Towles resurrects the cinematic black-and-white Manhattan of the golden age. Review Quotes Praise for Rules of Civility An irresistible and astonishingly assured debut about working class-women and world-weary WASPs in 1930s New York.in the crisp, noirish prose of the era, Towles portrays complex relationships in a city that is at once melting pot and elitist enclave - and a thoroughly modern heroine who fearlessly claims her place in it.

With its sparkling depiction of New Yorks social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society-where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

Book Synopsis From the New York Times-bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and the forthcoming The Lincoln Highway, a sharply stylish (Boston Globe) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society-now with over one million readers worldwide On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table.

Elegant and captivating, Rules of Civility turns a Jamesian eye on how spur-of-the-moment decisions define life for decades to come. About the Book Towles delivers a sophisticated and entertaining debut novel about an irresistible young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose.

Rules and civility