Empire Falls is the name of the town that this novel is set in. The prologue gives some history of the town, especially the Whiting family who owns a lot of real estate, a mill and a factory. The novel is set around 2000 and by this time the mill and factory have been shut down and the town is not what it once was.
Miles Roby is the manager of the Empire Grille (owned by Mrs. Whiting). Much of the novel involves him and his family, including his parents, brother and mother-in-law. There are a dozen or so characters but not enough for it to be confusing or hard to separate them. Miles has been promised that he will be left the Grille when Mrs. Whiting passes away but her family is long lived and in the meantime he is not doing much better than making it by. His wife Janine is in the process of divorcing him and is already seeing another man. Miles is at a crossroads in his life and has make some choices or just continue in the middle ground. As the novel unfolds, some secrets are revealed and characters have revelations.
This novel is mostly driven by the characters but there are some exciting plot points that occur in about the last third of the book.
I can see why it won a Pulitzer prize. The characters are complex and evolve as people. I appreciated the irony and situational humor. I liked it a lot but I did have a few quibbles. I wasn't sure about the logic of a plot point or the necessity of another. Also, I felt that one of the characters did something that was out of character. Despite those quibbles I would highly recommend it to people who like character driven stories.
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