Richard Russo: "Bridge of Sighs" | Oprah's Book Club

The Oprah Podcast

Harpo

Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Oprah’s Book Club: Presented by Starbucks features coffee and conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo in the Emerald City of Seattle, Starbucks’ hometown. His much-heralded classic, Bridge of Sighs, is Oprah’s 117th book club selection. Published in 2007, The New York Times called the novel "richly evocative and beautifully wrought, delivered with deceptive ease." Surrounded by an audience of readers at a cozy Starbucks Café, Oprah talks to Richard about Bridge of Sighs, a story about small-town life, family, secrets and the complexity of marriage. Mostly taking place in the 1950s and 1960s, Richard also explores the contradictions of a time when America was rapidly changing. Oprah and Russo are joined by an audience of readers as they enjoy a Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew and talk through many thought-provoking questions about the book. BUY THE BOOK! "Bridge of Sighs” by Richard Russo, is published by Penguin Random House and available wherever books are sold: ⁠https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/159146/bridge-of-sighs-by-richard-russo/⁠ Subscribe: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: Instagram Facebook TikTok Listen to the full podcast: Spotify Apple Podcasts #oprahsbookclub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody!
0:02.0	This is Richard Russo, everybody.
0:11.0	Esteemed Pulitzer Prize author, Richard.
0:16.0	It's great. Once you win that Pulitzer Prize, it follows you everywhere.
0:19.0	Isn't it great?
0:20.0	First line of the obituary.
0:22.4	All right.
0:23.0	Are we ready to roll here?
0:26.1	Hello, everybody.
0:27.0	A warm welcome to you.
0:28.2	Thank you for joining me for Oprah's Book Club, presented by Starbucks.
0:34.1	It is wonderful to be here in stunningly beautiful Seattle.
0:38.0	Seattle, we love you, Starbucks hometown.
0:42.9	This is where Starbucks was born, where the very first Starbucks opened in 1971.
0:48.7	Your cozy neighborhood Starbucks Cafe is the perfect place to sit down with a good book,
0:53.2	good coffee, and good company.
0:54.9	For this month's book club, Pick, Starbucks is pairing it with a vanilla sweet cream cold
0:59.9	brew. It's a slow, steeped cold brew coffee accent with vanilla, top with a float of housemaid
1:06.2	vanilla sweet cream. And my 117th book club selection is Bridge of Size, Bridge of Size by Pulitzer Prize
1:15.8	winning author Richard Russo. Let's welcome Richard Russo.
1:24.4	This novel is a layered coming-of-age story about the dreams.
1:33.1	Oh, the dreams both lost and realized of three friends from small-town America.
	...

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