Empire Falls

by Richard Russo

In the small, post-industrial town of Empire Falls, Maine, a huge cast of characters are just trying to get by. There’s Miles, the burger flipper at Empire Grill; David, Miles’s addict brother; Tick, Miles’s struggling teenage daughter; and Francine Whiting, the rich heiress who still tries to run the town. Russo’s warmhearted portrait of blue collar America interweaves the lives of the town’s inhabitants—before an unexpected twist shows the whole story in a new light.