Empire Falls by Richard Russo

A small, fictional mill town in Maine called Empire Falls, though once booming in industry, is quickly deteriorating. Owned by the powerful Whiting family, the town can no longer sustain itself. Seen through the eyes of Miles Roby, the manager of the Empire Grill, which is also owned by Mrs. Whiting, his struggles with family, including his divorce and his teenage daughter, greatly mirror the condition of the town. His soon-to-be ex-wife Janine is going out with and preparing to marry the owner of a fitness center in town. As prospects for the town's future dwindle, the past is visited to explain Miles' history as well as those around him and the town itself. A subplot of the novel involves a school shooting carried out by a poor high school student, who is essentially orphaned after the death of his grandmother.

The 1926th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Pulitzer Prize)
  2. - The Best Books of the 2000s (The Onion AV Club)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Empire Falls Audio CD 9593327 $324.95
Empire Falls Paperback 889896 $3.49
Empire Falls Paperback 1431021 $2.44 $0.01 2005
Empire Falls: Premio Pulitzer 2002 (Spanish Version) Paperback 1480887 $6.80 $6.79 2003
Empire Falls Paperback 3798066 $9.12 $0.01 2006
Empire Falls Hardcover 2952534 $109.12 $1.85 2001
Empire Falls. Paperback 3177777 $1.54 $0.01
Empire Falls Hardcover 471620 $6.73 $0.01 2001
Empire Falls (Signed First Edition) Paperback 4890432 $14.99 $1.94
Empire Falls Paperback 5618674 $0.01
Empire Falls Paperback 42434 $8.99 $1.07 2002
Empire Falls (Vintage Contemporaries) Kindle Edition 56853 $12.99 2011