Amor Towles was born and raised just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an MA in English from Stanford University. For over twenty years he was an investment professional until he retired in 2013 in order to write full time. He lives with his wife and two children in Manhattan and serves on the boards of the Library of America, the Yale Art Gallery, and the Wallace Foundation.Published in July 2011, his novel RULES OF CIVILITY has been translated into 15 languages. In America it was on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times. The book was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the ten best works of fiction in 2011 and its French translation received the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald. In June 2013, his novella EVE IN HOLLYWOOD, which follows a character from RULES OF CIVILITY, was published by Penguin as an ebook. Mr. Towles's only other published work is a short story cycle called "The Temptations of Pleasure" which appeared in the Paris Review in 1989. Mr. Towles is an ardent fan of early 20th century painting, 1950's jazz, 1970's cop shows, rock & roll on vinyl, obsolete accessories, manifestoes, breakfast pastries, pasta, liquor, snow-days, Tuscany, Provence, Disneyland, Hollywood, the cast of Casablanca, 007, Captain Kirk, Bob Dylan (early, mid, and late phases), the wee hours, card games, cafés, and the cookies made by both of his grandmothers.