Fiction by Richard Russo
Empire Falls is a town built around a mill that is controlled by one rich and powerful family, the Whitings. But, like many other mill towns around America, by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is almost dead. The mill has long since been closed, the work outsourced to a factory in Mexico, and most of the businesses are shuttered and abandoned.
But the last Mrs. Whiting is still in control. She owns almost every piece of real estate in town and likes to believe she owns all the people too. In particular, she owns the Empire Grill restaurant, and its cook and manager Miles Roby stays at her beck and call, bound by a mixture of guilt and habit to a job he hates and a town he no longer loves.
Will Miles break free? Or will he stay, and maybe marry Mrs. Whiting's only daughter? This is a really good story!
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