A Gentleman In Moscow author Amor Towles on Ewan McGregor and bringing his book to TV

Only last week I was on holiday: happily sitting in a café burrowing my way through the last few hundred pages of Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway when I noticed the German couple at the next table staring approvingly at its jacket. As I eventually made eye contact I knew what was coming.

‘Oh, did you read A Gentleman in Moscow?’ beamed one half of the couple.

‘We loved A Gentleman in Moscow!’ followed up his husband.

This is not the only time this has happened to me, nor the four million or so others who have had the pleasure, and bestselling Booker Prize-winning books, very few novels go on to become what their authors really dream of, which is… well, I’ll let Towles himself take over from here, being far better equipped than I.