ILLEGAL USE OF NARCOTICS, PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES, THEIR ANALOGS CAUSES HEALTH DAMAGE, THEIR ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING IS PROHIBITED AND ENTAILS LIABILITY ESTABLISHED BY LAW. Miles Roby has been making burgers at the "Empire Grill" for twenty years; this job cost him higher education and a good deal of self-respect. Miles is a good guy, but he has one tragic flaw in his character — he is incapable of decisive actions. And sometimes his kindness is indistinguishable from a willingness to go with the flow. But the currents in the town of Empire Falls are quite intricate. Even the Knox River here makes a loop, washing ashore everything it has gathered on its way. Similarly, Miles, who has been trying to escape his stifling hometown since youth, circles around his own life. Maybe he is held here by his smart, tough-skinned daughter Tick, who can't survive in the local school without her father's support? Or by Jeanine, Miles's soon-to-be ex-wife, who has started a romance with the hopelessly self-absorbed owner of the fitness club? Or by the authoritative Francine Whiting, the owner of everything in town — and it seems that "everything" includes Miles himself? Or maybe the need to look after his elderly father, too lively in his troublesome escapades? Or perhaps the secrets of the past that have shaped the lives of Miles and many others in town? In "Empire Falls," Richard Russo immerses the reader into the world of small-town life, bubbling with strangeness, intrigues, passions, funny and tragic events. "Empire Falls" is a humane novel full of humor, sympathy, sadness, and joy. The book received the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. Richard Russo has been rarely translated into Russian (a few stories in magazine versions do not count), and this is a big gap because Russo is not only a great writer, acclaimed by critics, awarded prizes, and beloved by readers, but his books should be especially close to Russian readers.