Set in New York City in 1938, this snappy, glittering 2011 debut novel by the author of A Gentleman from Moscow is the story of a watershed year in the life of 25-year-old Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of Manhattan society in search of a brighter future.

"[Amor] Towles captures a specific era in pre-war Manhattan, burnished with universals of youth and promise and the world awaiting. [This novel] certainly flashes a Dorothy-Parker-ish zip, but what give it soul is a hovering Fitzgerald-like maturity, at once pensive and poignant."—Plain Dealer (Cleveland)