Recommendations
Books Like Empire Falls by Richard Russo
For readers of the great Maine mill-town novel
If you loved Empire Falls — Miles Roby at the Empire Grill, Francine Whiting's promises, the community of a dying Maine mill town, Russo's comedy and tragedy running side by side — these novels share the same territory: working-class American communities, the people who stay in dying places, and the specific comedy of the Northeast small town under economic pressure.
- 1
Buy on AmazonNobody's Fool
by Richard Russo
The essential companion novel — Sully Sullivan's week in North Bath, New York; tighter, funnier, and more focused than Empire Falls; the two novels together constitute Russo's definitive portrait of the dying Northeast mill town.
- 2
Buy on AmazonStraight Man
by Richard Russo
Russo's most purely comic novel — Hank Devereaux's catastrophic week as acting English department chair; the companion in his comedy, showing his range beyond the small-town mode.
- 3
Buy on AmazonPlainsong
by Kent Haruf
Haruf's novel about a small Colorado plains town — the companion in the tradition of American fiction that finds dignity and meaning in ordinary lives in specific American places; Holt, Colorado's people are the western plains version of Empire Falls's people.
- 4
Buy on AmazonOlive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in stories — the Maine coastal companion; Crosby, Maine's people are the next generation of the small Maine community tradition that Empire Falls's Empire Falls inhabits; both are Pulitzer-winning portraits of specific Maine communities.
- 5
Buy on AmazonA Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
Irving's great New England novel — the companion in the tradition of American fiction set in specific small New England communities; Gravesend, New Hampshire is the earlier, more fantastical version of the dying New England mill towns Russo writes about.
- 6
Buy on AmazonLonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry
McMurtry's Pulitzer-winning epic Western — the companion in the tradition of the Pulitzer Prize American novel that combines broad scope, a large cast, and the comedy and tragedy of specific American lives; both Russo and McMurtry are writing in the Dickensian American tradition.
- 7
Buy on AmazonThe Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
Franzen's National Book Award-winning novel — the companion in American fiction about a specific American community under economic pressure; where Empire Falls is about a small Maine town, The Corrections is about the Midwestern professional middle class; both novels map a broad American social world through the lens of specific characters.
- 8
Buy on AmazonGilead
by Marilynne Robinson
Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — the companion in American fiction about small-town community, faith, and the moral seriousness of ordinary lives; John Ames's Gilead, Iowa is the quiet, theological version of the specific American place that Empire Falls's Empire Falls represents.
More Empire Falls by Richard Russo Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.