Publishers Weekly
02/05/2024
Bestseller Towles (The Lincoln Highway) returns with an enchanting collection of stories about fateful encounters. In “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” the young title character moves to New York City to become a novelist and works in a bookstore, where his boss pays him bonuses to forge the signatures of famous dead authors in first editions of their books. The scheme pays off for a while, until Paul Auster visits the shop and spies forgeries in two of his own works. Art and crime also dovetail in “The Bootlegger,” when a Carnegie Hall concert attendee has another man thrown out for making a bootleg recording, then feels remorse after learning the man had taken to recording the concerts for his late wife when she was too ill to attend, and continued recording them after she died in order to remember her. The standout novel-length “Eve in Hollywood,” a sequel to Towles’s debut Rules of Civility, follows Evelyn Ross from New York City to Los Angeles in 1938, where she befriends film star Olivia de Havilland and has-been Prentice Symmons, and comes to Olivia’s aid after Olivia is blackmailed with nude photos. The noirish tale is rife with double crosses, exciting chases, surprising reversals, and the vivid historical atmosphere Towles is known for. The author’s fans won’t want to miss this. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by the New York Times Book Review Podcast, Reader's Digest, Time, and more
“A knockout collection. ... Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner.” —The New York Times
“Superb ... This may be Towles' best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef's main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart.” —Los Angeles Times
“Table for Two is a smorgasbord of deliciously mischievous tales imbued with Towles' signature wit and worldliness.” —Time
“These are jam-packed, juicy stories.” —Star Tribune
“Delightful.” —People
“Towles continues to show his signature wit and literary prowess in this new collection, making Table for Two a can’t-miss for current or future fans of his work.” —Chicago Review of Books
“Towles excels with this collection. Readers unfamiliar with his novels will love these examples of his shorter fiction and they will be pure catnip to his legions of fans. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal, starred review
“Table for Two is a masterful, subtle collection of thoroughly entertaining stories.” —BookPage
“A sneakily entertaining assortment of tales.” —Kirkus
Library Journal
★ 03/08/2024
A young Russian entrepreneur, an aspiring author-turned-forger, a husband's secret hobby, a Carnegie Hall bootlegger, and a novella of old Hollywood feature in this collection of richly crafted stories from the artful novelist who wrote A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway. In "The Ballad of Timothy Touchett," a starving young novelist is persuaded by a bookseller to forge another author's signature on a first edition of a book, increasing its value at auction. This becomes a lucrative gig for the young novelist, until he forges one too many signatures and is caught in the act. This tale, like the others in Towles's collection, turns on a quirk of the human condition and provides readers with a satisfying surprise ending. Reading these stories feels like getting an unexpected treat with one's afternoon tea. VERDICT Not all novelists are good short story writers, but Towles excels with this collection. Readers unfamiliar with his novels will love these examples of his shorter fiction and they will be pure catnip to his legions of fans. Highly recommended.—Susan Clifford Braun
MARCH 2024 - AudioFile
Edoardo Ballerini meets Towles is a happy alliance in this short story collection. J. Smith-Cameron narrates only one story. Golden Voice narrator Ballerini uses his full range of techniques. By turns nuanced and dramatic, he always serves the author's fine prose. His smart pace and rich tone work particularly well for the noir novella set in late 1930s Hollywood. Evelyn Ross, from Towles's novel THE RULES OF CIVILITY, has now moved on from New York City. Ballerini shines in the opening work, "New York: The Line," about an average Russian, named Pushkin, who has a gift for helping others with Russia's long food lines. These works are smaller bore than Towles's novels, but they too have his touch: finely detailed characters, distinct settings, and deserved comeuppances. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2024-01-20
In his first collection, Towles sequel-izes his debut novel, Rules of Civility (2011), with a 200-page novella and adds six short fictions involving unlikely encounters and unexpected outcomes.
Set in the late 1930s, the novella, Eve in Hollywood, extends the story of Evelyn Ross, nervy sidekick of Rules protagonist Katey Kontent. On a train from New York to Los Angeles, the flinty, facially scarred blond, impulsively rejecting a return to her home in Indiana, strikes up a friendship with widowed former homicide cop Charlie Granger. They meet months later in L.A. when Eve’s cutely met new friend, starlet Olivia de Havilland, is blackmailed over surreptitiously taken nude photos. In classic noir fashion, an untrustworthy man of significant girth is at the heart of the plot. The book’s other lively pairings include a used bookseller and a young would-be writer who finds his calling forging signatures of famous authors for him (Paul Auster plays a key role); a newly committed concertgoer and an older patron who drives him to distraction by secretly recording the music; and two travelers stranded at the airport who share a cab ride to a hotel, where one of them transforms from a harmless nice guy into a raging alcoholic and the other attempts to drag him away from the bar on desperately phoned orders from the man’s wife. Towles has fun leaping ahead with his narratives. In a cruel twist of fate, a peasant in late-czarist Russia pays a price for daring to profit from holding people’s places on excessively long food lines in Moscow. Towles sometimes lays on the philosophical wisdom and historical knowledge a bit, but the novella and all the stories are treated to his understated (and occasionally mischievous) irony.
A sneakily entertaining assortment of tales.
