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Empire Falls

by Richard Russo

A life shaped by a mill town

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    National Bestseller

AlbakiReads Editorial

A life shaped by a mill town

Empire Falls is a blue-collar town marked by abandoned mills, where long-standing friendships and feuds bind neighbors together. At the Empire Grill, Miles Roby has spent two decades serving burgers after giving up his college education. His ties to his daughter, his estranged wife, and the town’s powerful owner all figure in the pressures keeping him rooted there. The novel connects one man’s sense of self and limited choices with the fortunes and social fabric of a community in decline, while the description points to humor and hope alongside heartache.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction centered on working-class American communities.
  • Readers who enjoy novels about family ties, local relationships, and a town in decline.

Themes

Community and declineWork and self-respectFamily tiesFriendship and feudsHope amid hardship

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

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.
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