Author
Richard Russo
Birth Date
July 15, 1949
(77 Years)
Associated Country
United States
Richard Russo is an American novelist and screenwriter known for his insightful, character-driven stories set in small, often struggling towns. Born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville, Russo draws heavily on his upbringing in a declining industrial community. He pursued higher education at the University of Arizona, earning both an MFA and a Ph.D. in English, which helped shape his literary career.
Russo achieved critical and commercial success with novels such as Mohawk (1986), Nobody’s Fool (1993), and Empire Falls (2001). His writing is marked by a blend of humor and compassion, exploring themes like family dynamics, economic hardship, and the resilience of ordinary people. Empire Falls earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 and further solidified his reputation as a major voice in contemporary American fiction.
In addition to his novels, Russo has written memoirs and screenplays, demonstrating his versatility as a writer. His memoir Elsewhere (2012) offers a personal look at his relationship with his mother and his early life. Through his body of work, Russo has built a lasting legacy for his ability to portray the complexities of everyday life with empathy, wit, and authenticity.
Russo achieved critical and commercial success with novels such as Mohawk (1986), Nobody’s Fool (1993), and Empire Falls (2001). His writing is marked by a blend of humor and compassion, exploring themes like family dynamics, economic hardship, and the resilience of ordinary people. Empire Falls earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 and further solidified his reputation as a major voice in contemporary American fiction.
In addition to his novels, Russo has written memoirs and screenplays, demonstrating his versatility as a writer. His memoir Elsewhere (2012) offers a personal look at his relationship with his mother and his early life. Through his body of work, Russo has built a lasting legacy for his ability to portray the complexities of everyday life with empathy, wit, and authenticity.
Books
Life and Art 2026
Life and Art—these are the twin subjects considered in Richard Russo’s twelve masterful new essays—how they inform each other and how the stories we tell ourselves about both shape our understanding...
Under the Falls 2026
When Tyler Sinclair left Stone Mountain at eighteen, he had no plans of returning. With only a duffel bag full of clothes, a few bucks stolen from his father’s dresser, and a guitar, his most prized...
Somebody's Fool 2024
North Bath, Book 3
Ten years after the death of the magnetic Donald “Sully” Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is annexed by its much wealthier neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Peter,...
Chances Are... 2020
One beautiful September day, three men in their late sixties convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the sixties. They couldn't have been more different then, or even...
The Destiny Thief 2019
“I’ve written a lot about destiny in my fiction,” admits Richard Russo, “not because I understand it, but because I’d like to.” In the first of these eleven remarkable essays, Russo shares the story...
Trajectory 2018
The characters in these four expansive stories are a departure from the blue-collar denizens that populate so many of Richard Russo’s novels. In “Horseman,” a young professor confronts an...
Everybody's Fool 2017
North Bath, Book 2
Now, ten years later, Doug Raymer has become the chief of police and is tormented by the improbable death of his wife—not to mention his suspicion that he was a failure of a husband. Meanwhile, the...
Elsewhere 2013
Anyone familiar with Russo’s novels will recognize Gloversville—once famous for producing nine out of ten dress gloves in the United States. By the time Rick was born, ladies had stopped wearing...
That Old Cape Magic 2010
For Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod. The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he’d leave his LA...
Bridge of Sighs 2008
Louis Charles Lynch is sixty years old and has spent his entire life in Thomaston, New York, married to the same woman, Sarah, for forty of them, their son now a grown man. Like his late, beloved...
The Whore's Child 2003
Richard Russo brings the same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative gifts that distinguish his best-selling novels.
A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his...
Empire Falls 2002
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...
Straight Man 1998
William Henry Devereaux, Jr., is the reluctant chairman of the English department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his...
Nobody's Fool 1994
North Bath, Book 1
Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a...
Mohawk 1994
Mohawk, New York, is one of those small towns that lie almost entirely on the wrong side of the tracks. Dallas Younger, a star athlete in high school, now drifts from tavern to poker game, losing...
The Risk Pool 1994
His father, Sam, cultivates bad habits so assiduously that he is stuck at the bottom of his auto insurance risk pool. His mother, Jenny, is slowly going crazy from resentment at a husband who refuses...