Short Story Collections

This irresistible collection of short stories from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls reveals the imperfect bargains of marriage, the discoveries and disillusionments of childhood, and the unwinnable battles men and women insist on fighting with the past. “An author whose laid-back understatements can be as sharp as other writers’ boldest declarations….the architect of stories you can’t put down.” — The New York Times 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 dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have, unsparingly truthful yet hugely compassionate and capable of creating characters real that they seem to step off the page. Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool , coming soon.

In what many perceive as a coldly relentless digital age, Pulitzer-prize winning author Richard Russo has teamed up with his daughter, artist Kate Russo, to present this tribute to the printed book. This handsome and inventive format—four individually bound volumes gathered in a slipcase—combines the previously unpublished novella “Intervention” with three shorter works, two of which have not been published in book form. The four tales in Interventions crackle with Russo’s perceptive wit and unwavering compassion for the human condition. In the title novella, self-obsessed realtor Ray must confront his own mortality and doesn’t seem especially interested in winning the battle. A surprising revelation about his father and uncle, however, and his realization of an unlikely friendship lead him to believe he just might like to stick around. “Horseman” explores the complexities of a young professor’s marriage and academic life, and “The Whore’s Child” negotiates the not-always-clear line between fact and fiction. The final piece, “High and Dry,” is Russo’s paean to the heyday of his hometown, Gloversville, New York. Each of the four volumes is paired with a small, full-color print of a painting by Kate Russo. Printed in the United States on the finest sustainably harvested papers, the set is as much a joy to hold in the hand as it is to read.

Richard Russo's characters in these four expansive stories bear little similarity to the blue-collar citizens we're familiar with from many of his novels. In 'Horseman,' a professor confronts a young plagiarist as well as her own weaknesses as the Thanksgiving holiday looms closer and closer. In 'Intervention,' a real estate agent facing an ominous medical prognosis finds himself in his father's shadow while he presses forward - or not. In 'Voice,' a semi-retired academic is conned by his estranged brother into joining a group tour of the Venice Biennale, fleeing a mortifying incident with a traumatised student back in Massachusetts but encountering further complications in the maze of Venice. And in 'Milton and Marcus,' a lapsed novelist tries to rekindle his screenwriting career, only to be stymied by the pratfalls of that trade when he's called to an aging, iconic star's mountaintop retreat in Wyoming. Each of these stories is shot through with the humour, wisdom and surprise for which Richard Russo has long been acclaimed as Trajectory continues to extend the breadth of his achievements.