NO TURNING BACK: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria, by Rania Abouzeid. (Norton, $17.95.) Abouzeid has spent years on the ground in Syria covering the civil war, and she combines extraordinary reporting with a historical and political overview of the origins of the conflict. In her book she focuses on a small group of characters, and their stories offer an intimate look at the impact of violence and tragedy. A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, by Amor Towles. (Penguin, $17.) In Towles's hugely popular novel, an aristocrat under arrest watches from a posh hotel as the Russian Revolution unfolds. Our reviewer, Craig Taylor, wrote, "What saves the book is the gorgeous sleight of hand that draws it to a satisfying end, and the way he chooses themes that run deeper than mere sociopolitical commentary." LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE: Essays, by Sloane Crosley. (Picador/MCD, $17.) Fans of Crosley, the author of "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" and "How Did You Get This Number," will be pleased to see her signature wit on full display in this new collection. The pieces draw on everything from her volcano-scaling escapades to the death of her solitary downstairs neighbor. Her observations, even the most sobering, are shot through with hope. THE BALCONY, by Jane Delury. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $15.99.) This debut novel leaps back and forth to tell the stories of a property's inhabitants, starting in the 19 th century through the recent past. The state of the house, from dilapidation to haphazard renovation, mirrors the shifting relationships among its residents, including a Jewish family in hiding, a former courtesan and more. Our reviewer, Jan Stuart, praised the novel, writing, "The vivid intimacy of Delury's canvas is enhanced by descriptive prose at once concise and lush." TAILSPIN: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall - and Those Fighting to Reverse It, by Steven Brill. (Vintage, $16.95.) In this lament, Brill places a special focus on the laws and public decisions that have ushered in the current political and legal stalemates. It's not all depressing reading, however, as Brill is careful to highlight people and groups he believes are working to address our present problems. SMALL COUNTRY, by Gael j ··4 paye Trans|atecj by Sarah 4 Ardizzone. (Hogarth, $15.) A best seller in France, this novel borrows some ele"???? ments from the author's life to tell the story of a young boy, Gabriel, who is uprooted from his happy childhood in Burundi after civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis breaks out in the 1990s. The book charts Gabriel's loss of innocence in the face of violence.

Having chronicled upper-crust 1938 New York in his elegant debut, Rules of Civility, Towles grandly unfolds the life of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov in Soviet-era Moscow. The count is condemned by his past to permanent house arrest at the sumptuous Metropole Hotel, where he inhabits a tiny attic he's turned into a reflection of his rich interior life. Having expected to idle away his hours at his country estate, the count is initially at loose ends, his very values challenged. But he befriends little Nina, who teaches him the secrets of the Metropole and leaves him with a wonderful gift, and after a moment of despair launches on a whole new course. The count becomes head waiter at the Boyarsky, the hotel's fabled restaurant, forming a Triumvirate with chef Emile and maître d' Andrey as he purveys taste, discretion, and culture in a bloodily upturned world. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's many tragedies touch him (and readers) at a distance, communicating a sense of life ever haunted and ever resilient. VERDICT As urbane, cultured, and honey-smooth as the count himself, even as his situation inevitably creates suspense, this enthralling work is highly recommended even for those unfamiliar with Soviet history. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In his remarkable first novel, the best-selling Rules of Civility (2011), Towles etched 1930s New York in crystalline relief. Though set a world away in Moscow over the course of three decades, his latest polished literary foray into a bygone era is just as impressive. Sentenced as an incorrigible aristocrat in 1922 by the Bolsheviks to a life of house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is spared the firing squad on the basis of a revolutionary poem he penned as an idealistic youth. Condemned, instead, to live his life confined to the indoor parameters of Metropol Hotel, he eschews bitterness in favor of committing himself to practicalities. As he carves out a new existence for himself in his shabby attic room and within the magnificent walls of the hotel-at-large, his conduct, his resolve, and his commitment to his home and to the hotel guests and staff together form a triumph of the human spirit. As Moscow undergoes vast political changes and countless social upheavals, Rostov remains, implacably and unceasingly, a gentleman. Towles presents an imaginative and unforgettable historical portrait.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2016 Booklist

House arrest has never been so charming as in Towles's second novel (following Rules of Civility), an engaging 30-year saga set almost entirely inside the Metropol, Moscow's most luxurious hotel. To Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, the Metropol becomes both home and jail in 1922, when the Bolsheviks spare his life (on the strength of a revolutionary poem written in 1913, when the count was at university). Forbidden to venture out, Rostov explores the intricacies of the grand structure and befriends its other denizens: precocious nine-year-old Nina Kulikova, a bureaucrat's daughter who demands instruction on how to be a princess; Emile, virtuosic chef of the Boyarsky, "the finest restaurant in Moscow"; Andrey, the Boyarsky's French expatriate maître d'; and the beautiful actress Anna Urbanova, who becomes the count's regular visitor and paramour. Standing in for the increasingly despotic Soviet government is the Bishop, a villainous waiter who experiences gradual professional ascent-he becomes headwaiter of the Boyarsky, finally putting his seating-chart and wine-pairing talents to use. But when the adult Nina returns to ask Rostov for a favor, his unique, precariously well-appointed life must change once more. Episodic, empathetic, and entertaining, Count Rostov's long transformation occurs against a lightly sketched background of upheaval, repression, and war. Gently but dauntlessly, like his protagonist, Towles is determined to chart the course of the individual. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.