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Well, hello there, bookcasers. It's another Thursday. We're delighted to see you, even if we're seeing you on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. I'm Charlie Gibson.

Absolutely. We'll take you any day of the week. As long as you are a bookcase lover and you're enthusiastic and open-minded, you're one of us.

Absolutely. We should send out those foam rubber

things that we're number one, you know? Yeah, big foam finger, you know. And everybody can wear

them when they listen. I love today's show. You know, I have said several times that I have the

greatest job in the world. And frankly, over the last three years, I've met a few of my literary heroes. I've also discovered some new literary heroes, but I've met a few of my literary heroes, Amortol, James McBride, Ernan Diaz. Like, there are people that I've met that I've been in awe of. And this week's guest, Richard Russo is one of those. I fell in love with Richard Russo after I read Empire Falls,

and then I read just about everything else that he ever wrote elsewhere.

That old Cape Magic, straight man is one of my favorites.

If you, by the way, home listeners have not read Straight Man, you will love it and laugh out loud.

I love Richard Russo's writing, So when I heard he had something new,

I was like, are you kidding? Well, first of all, I love the trilogy, too, that was set in the upstate New York.

Nobody's fool. Everybody's fool. Somebody's fool. I love that trilogy. But Russo is extraordinary in that

he writes such fully developed characters that are so relatable,

even if they come from an area to which you wouldn't normally relate.

And you can just picture the places that he writes about in small town, upstate, challenged town in New York, upstate New York, and he writes with a tremendous

heart. This is a very full show, and Richard Russo is a very, very interesting writer, so we're

delighted to have him, but I want to underline his new book, just out on Tuesday the 13th,

...