The novel's appendix includes the 110 rules, a guide that Edith Wharton would never need consult. Grey's primer on social advancement is no less than that of Founding Father George Washington, whose 'Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation' becomes his do-it-yourself charm school. Katey's guide through society is Tinker Grey, a more interesting and complex character than his cashmere coat and monogrammed lighters and cases might suggest. From the 1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, 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. With this bit of a wink, Towles conveys that he will be playing with some of the great themes of love and class, luck and fated encounters that animated Wharton novels such as 'The House of Mirth' and 'The Age of Innocence.' Towles' central figure, Katey Kontent (a great name) - born Katya to Russian immigrant parents in Brooklyn - travels in and out of America's world of privilege with wit and an eye for irony. Published in 2011, Rules of Civility is American author Amor Towles’ acclaimed debut novel.Set at the end of the 1930s during The Great Depression, the narrative follows spunky roommates Katey Kontent and Evelyn Ross as they make their way up the social ladder in New York society. Snow powders Washington Square's trees, gates and brownstones as the curtain is drawn back and 'the ghost of Edith Wharton looked out with shy envy,' writes Towles. She thinks back to her single days and to the night she first met Tinker in '37. The novel opens at an art gallery in 1966, and then flashes back to 1937 after Katey sees a photo of her former lover, Tinker Grey. In the first few pages of 'Rules of Civility,' Amor Towles' wonderful debut novel, it's New Year's Eve in Manhattan, with 1938 a few hours away. Rules of Civility is the story of Katey Kontent in New York City.

Rules of civility