![]() ![]() ![]() As it builds inexorably to a shocking climax, Russo constantly surprises with characters who creep under your guard to disarm you, a plot with as many twists and falls as the Knox River itself, and an ending that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Here is a huge-hearted and magnificent novel by a master storyteller, marked by comic genius and a love of humankind with all its flaws and foibles. Meantime, though, his wife has run off with his worst customer, he's anxious about his adored teenage daughter and his one-handed brother, his incorrigible father sponges off everyone, the police have Miles in their sights, and Mrs Whiting has her own plans for him. Miles Roby, a gentle, funny loser runs the grill and hopes one day to own it. Its hub is the Empire Grill, with a view down the avenue to the abandoned mill and factory. Now his wife, Francine, the last Mrs Whiting, presides like a black widow spider over the declining fortunes of the town. Life in Empire Falls continues to move at a depressing, glacial pace. The Whiting men have invariably married women who make their lives a misery. The Whiting family, owners of the mills and the shirt factory, have sold out to a multinational. History and humanity flow through Empire Falls, Maine, like the strange flotsam washed up at the bend of the vast, slow-moving Knox River. ![]()
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