Empire Falls

by Richard Russo

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The bestselling author of Nobody's Fool and Straight Man delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace.

“Rich, humorous ... Mr. Russo’s most seductive book thus far.” —The New York Times

Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbors and who find humor and hope in the most unlikely places, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo.

Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself.

Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.

• ISBN10: 0375726403
• ISBN13: 9780375726408
• Publish Date: 12 April 2002 (first published 1 January 2001)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Vintage Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 496
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780375726408

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Russo writes for those Sunday afternoons with the built-in need to devour a book whole, to get lost completely in another time and place.

I knew all the way through— no matter how engrossed I was along the way— that the final verdict of hatred or love would be completely determined by the ending, likely right down the very last page. The sky would fall, was falling, fell repeatedly, inevitably: but how great would the devastation be? And, to great, unexpected relief, it was exactly right. One of those books that was written to be just what I needed right now, right here.