Publisher's Summary Number-one New York Times Best Seller A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and chosen by Oprah Daily , Time , NPR, The Washington Post , and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining ... permeated with light, wit, youth.” ( The New York Times Book Review ) “A classic that we will read for years to come.” (Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna Book Club) “A real joyride ... elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” (NPR) The best-selling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served 15 months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California, where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction - to the city of New York. Spanning just 10 days and told from multiple points of view, Towles' third novel will satisfy fans of his multilayered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. ©2021 Amor Towles (P)2021 Penguin Audio