Chances Are

Description

One beautiful September day, three sixty-six-year old men convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the sixties. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today - Lincoln's a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey a musician beyond his rockin' age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971. Now, forty-four years later, as this new weekend unfolds, three lives and that of a significant other are displayed in their entirety while the distant past confounds the present like a relentless squall of surprise and discovery. Shot through with Russo's trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are also introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader's heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga of how friendship's bonds are every bit as constricting and rewarding as those of family or any other community. For both longtime fans and lucky newcomers, Chances Are is a stunning demonstration of a highly acclaimed author deepening and expanding his remarkable achievement.

Richard Russo is the author of eight previous novels, two collections of stories, a collection of essays, and the memoir Elsewhere. 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; in 2016 he was awarded the Indie Champion Award by the American Booksellers Association; and in 2017 he received France's Grand Prix de Litterature Americaine. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Cleverly paced, Russo's latest novel folds page-turning suspense into an unhurried, warmly observed portrait of friendship in later life. * Mail on Sunday * His stories are omnisciently narrated in a tone of sardonic understanding of human folly, which places him in the house of American style on a polished mezzanine between John Updike and Anne Tyler...Chances Are, a rare mix of the tense and tender, should gain Russo further literary acclaim. -- Mark Lawson * Guardian * There's much to enjoy in Richard Russo's typically nuanced portrait of three childhood friends...[a] fine-grained exploration of troubled, small-town masculinity...Russo's prose is so quietly melodious you can almost hear it singing. * Daily Mail * An eloquent excavation of long-buried secrets. * Observer * totally engrossing...Humane and beautifully crafted, it provides further compelling evidence of Russo's prestige as a contemporary American writer. * Sydney Morning Herald * ...chances are awfully good that you'll lap up this gripping, wise and wonderful summer treat. * Boston Globe * Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo balances suspense with comedy in this gripping tale. * Time * Richard Russo is often compared to Dickens, to whom he clearly owes a debt, but the ghost hovering over his fabulous new novel, Chances Are, feels more like Sam Shepard...Next to Colson Whitehead's new book, there's not a better paced summer read -- John Freeman * Literary Hub * ...blends everything we love about this author with something new...Vintage Russo...No one understands men better than Russo, and no one is more eloquent in explaining how they think, suffer and love. * Kirkus (starred review) * Russo's hallmark themes - the intricacy of male friendships, one-sided love, the collision of the past with the present - are on full display * New York Times * ...a brisk story with memorable characters and smart things to say about loss and missed opportunities. * Minneapolis Star Tribune * ...there's heart and beauty on every page. * USA Today * Richard Russo can write like Edith Wharton leavened with a touch of David Lodge. * The Economist * A writer of great comedy and warmth, Russo's living proof that a book can be profound and wise without aiming straight into darkness. * USA Today * Perhaps if it was pointed out that here was a US writer who stood somewhere between Anne Tyler at her darkest and Russell Banks, with an occasional hint of Richard Ford at his least bleak, perhaps Russo would become as widely read as he deserves to be. * Irish Times * No one writing today captures the detail of life with such stunning accuracy. -- Annie Proulx