Table for Two

The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as the bestselling novelist now turns to shorter fiction, in a collection of six stories and a novella featuring all the storytelling magic that has delighted his fans. In stories all set in New York City, an elderly, widowed man secretly tapes concerts in Carnegie Hall, until the investment banker sitting next to him turns him in; a lawyer’s unadulterated joy in roller-skating in Central Park wreaks havoc on his marriage; a young man with literary aspirations begins to forge famous writers’ signatures at the antiquarian bookstore where he works; and a retired art appraiser becomes obsessed with tracking down a fragment of a renowned painting from the Italian Renaissance. Table for Two closes with “Eve in Hollywood,” a noirish novella set against the glamour and grit of Hollywood’s golden age. 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.