Count Alexander Rostov, recipient of the Order of St Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt, was the heir to his family's estate, Idlehour, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian. But no longer. After the revolution and a brief court appearance before the Emergency Committee of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the Count becomes a permanent resident of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. At at age 30, in 1922, he begins the second stage of his life there under house arrest. If he so much as steps into the street, he will be shot. So begins a masterful work of historical fiction, one of the best books I have read in a long time, and the most engaging work I have ever read about this turbulent period of Russian history (1922- 1954). The Count is confined, but in a spot where much of the world can come to him. The Hotel Metropol has six floors, two restaurants, an American style cocktail bar off the lobby, a barbershop, a flower shop, a tailor shop, a ballroom and many basements. It is regularly visited by members of the Party, trade union meetings, and- when they are finally allowed back into the country- foreign ambassadors, journalists, and tourists. Even so, after just a week of confinement the Count is wondering if he will go insane from boredom... until he meets Nina, a 9 year old girl who also calls the hotel home. So begins a friendship which will change the course of both of their lives forever. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.