As with any great writer, Amor Towles wants his readers to meet him halfway. This means, among other things, that when he describes the “willowy woman” at the end of A Gentleman in Moscow, he is careful not to spell out her identity. Such deliberate ambiguity makes us think about what we're reading without having to be spoon-fed all the relevant details.

It's almost certainly the case that the said “willowy woman” is in fact Count Rostov's girlfriend, the actress Anna. She is described as “willowy” on several occasions throughout the book, a reference to her tall, slim body shape. Her height also perhaps suggests a certain sturdiness and strength in her makeup, reflected by her decision and that of the count to remain in Russia despite the obvious dangers of being imprisoned or even executed.

On the face of it, it may seem strange that Anna and the count would not take the chance to get out of the country and evade the clutches of a repressive regime. But in the final analysis, they are both Russians; this is their homeland in which their souls reside, and they are not prepared to leave it, irrespective of the very real dangers they will surely face.

The "willowy woman" in the tavern at the end of A Gentleman in Moscow is not identified, but the adjective "willowy" alone is enough to suggest very strongly that this is Anna, Count Rostov's former inamorata and the only woman in the text who is identified with this epithet. Given the tone of the ending, in which so much is left ambiguous, it would be surprising if she were identified any more clearly.

The word "willowy" most obviously refers to Anna's figure, but there is also an expression in Central and Eastern Europe (of which someone from Count Rostov's background would almost certainly have been aware): a hollow willow is one in whom secrets may be confided. This metaphor was widely used from the middle of the nineteenth century onward—for instance in the poem Král Lávra (King Lear) by Czech poet Karel Havlíček Borovský. It is clearly apposite both for Anna herself and for a conclusion to a book in which secrets abound.

The identity of the gray-haired "willowy woman" Count Rostov sees at the end of A Gentleman in Moscow is left ambiguous. However, context clues throughout the book indicate it was almost certainly Anna: she is the only character described using that particular adjective (many times, in fact). Other clues in the scene suggest that Count Rostov has fled home in Russia at his family's residence to stay, at least momentarily, with his grandmother. Nina's absence suggests that she met an unfortunate fate during Stalin's period of control over Russia.

It is possible Rostov feigned his lost passport in order to evade identification by the ruthless KGB. Persecution, imprisonment, and conviction without trial were all unfortunate features of the KGB's operations. Collectively, these clues suggest that Count Rostov and Anna, unable to fully relinquish their homeland, have decided to hide out in rural Russia and take on new identities.

Who is the "willowy woman waited" on the last page of A Gentleman in Moscow?

Spoiler alert! The willowy woman with the graying hair at the end of the book is none other than Anna, Count Rostow's actress girlfriend. In relation to a person, "willowy" means tall and slim, and that's precisely how Anna's been described on numerous occasions right throughout the book.

What's significant about the final action of the book is that the count has made the fateful decision to stay in the Soviet Union with Anna despite the fact that, as an aristocrat and therefore a "class traitor," he is technically an enemy of the state. The count could've remained in Paris along with many other Russian émigrés; at least there, he would've been safe from the revolutionary authorities. But the pull of his homeland is ultimately too strong for him to resist, and so he and the willowy Anna commit themselves, for good or ill, to live and die in Mother Russia.