The Destiny Thief

A master of the novel, short story and memoir, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Everybody's Foolnow gives us his very first collection of personal essays, thoughts on writing, reading and living.



In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend and reader. From a commencement speech to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humour in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain's value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery, The Destiny Thief reflects the broad interests and experiences of one of America's most beloved authors.



Warm, funny, wise and poignant, the essays included here traverse Russo's writing life, expanding our understanding of who he is and how his singular, incredibly generous mind works. An utter joy to read, they give deep insight into the creative process from the perspective of one of our greatest writers.



Richard Russois the author of eight novels, two collections of stories, and On Helwig Street, a memoir. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody's Fool, was adapted to film, in a multiple-award-winning HBO miniseries. He lives in Maine.



It turns out that Russo the nonfiction writer is a lot like Russo the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. He is affably disagreeable, wry, idiosyncratic, vulnerably bighearted, a craftsman of lubricated sentences...Perhaps what's most admirable about these essays is their genial and searching tone. In this know-it-all age Russo places his faith in the ideals of art-ambiguity, paradox, heresy, the sublime-over the black-and-white ideologies or our current politics.



Entertaining slices of writerly wisdom



Russo's colourful book offers his novels' fans more of his dazzling and moving writing, often revealing glimpses of the forces that drive a bestselling fiction writer.



Splendid. . . . These are wise, personal pieces, and readers get to know the author as a comforting, funny, and welcoming guy.



For aspiring writers, Russo's musings on the art and craft of the novel are a trove of knowledge and guidance. For adoring readers, they are a window into the imagination and inspiration for Russo's beloved novels, screenplays, and short stories. . . . Few authors seem as approachable in print and, one suspects, in person as acclaimed novelist Russo.



Certain to please anyone familiar with his short fiction and novels. . . . The unselfconscious voice threading through these nine explorations of writing, writers, and everyday life is a welcome alternative to the all-too-common introspection and fraught 'literariness' found in many recent memoir and essay collections from prominent authors. Readers seeking a deeply insightful record of the creative process and the life guiding it will find resonance here.



Richard Russo is one of America's finest chronicles of blue-collar existence.