Under the Falls: A Novel by Richard Russo

Under the Falls by Richard Russo — the first stand-alone novel in years from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls.

When Tyler Sinclair left Stone Mountain at eighteen, he had no intention of ever returning. With little more than a guitar and a few stolen dollars, he disappeared without a goodbye. Eighteen years later he is the frontman of a famous band — aptly named Stone Mountain — and finds himself back in his hometown for a one-night benefit concert to support his old friend Doc, left paralyzed after a childhood accident.

At the concert, old resentments simmer just beneath the surface. Tyler is confronted by faces both familiar and new: Curt, his childhood best friend and now the town’s chief of police; Deb, an outsider officer who may have taken on more than she expected; and Freddi, Curt’s wife and Tyler’s former lover, whose complicated history with him will prove explosive.

What begins as a reluctant homecoming quickly spirals into tragedy, exposing long-held secrets, betrayals, and the dark undercurrents of a tight-knit community. Stone Mountain, it turns out, is the kind of place you might escape from once — if you’re lucky — but not twice.

At once a propulsive small-town crime story and a gut-wrenching portrait of friendship, regret, and the porous line between right and wrong,