North Bath

Richard Russo

Over the course of one tumultuous Memorial Day weekend in the troubled town of North Bath, New York, a cast of damaged, comic, and deeply human characters confronts the consequences of their pasts. Police chief Douglas Raymer, haunted by his wife’s death and determined to identify her suspected lover, finds himself drawn into a series of strange investigations while navigating uncertain feelings for a fellow officer. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Donald “Sully” Sullivan faces a sobering health crisis as old relationships and dangerous figures resurface around him. With wry humor and compassionate insight, the novel explores memory, mortality, love, moral responsibility, and the unpredictable ways a community’s lives intersect.