In The Destiny Thief, Russo’s nine essays cover a sprawling range of topics—from an oddly placed toilet and how it caused him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art, to the true value of Mark Twain, and the harrowing journey he took with a good friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery.

Warm, funny, wise, and poignant, the essays expand our understanding of Richard Russo and how his incredible mind works. An utter joy to read, they give deep insight into the creative process from the perspective of one of our greatest writers.

Publisher’s Weekly praised The Destiny Thief as “dazzling and moving writing” that reveals “glimpses of the forces that drive a bestselling fiction writer.”

Richard Russo received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 for his novel Empire Falls. In addition to The Whore’s Child, Russo is the author of nine novels, most recently the best-selling Everybody’s Fool and That Old Cape Magic, and the memoir, Elsewhere. Russo’s 1993 bestselling novel about a man’s later-life crisis, Nobody’s Fool, was adapted into a major film starring Paul Newman and Melanie Griffith. He lives in Portland, Maine.