Everybody's Fool Audiobook By Richard Russo cover art

Everybody's Fool

A Novel

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Everybody's Fool

By: Richard Russo
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.75

Buy for $24.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Richard Russo, at the very top of his game, now returns to North Bath in upstate New York and the characters who made Nobody's Fool (1993) a "confident, assured novel" according to the San Francisco Chronicle back then. "Simple as family love, yet nearly as complicated." Or, as The Boston Globe put it, "a big, rambunctious novel with endless riffs and unstoppable human hopefulness".

The irresistible Sully, who in the intervening years has come by some unexpected good fortune, is staring down a VA cardiologist's estimate that he has only a year or two left, and it's hard work trying to keep this news from the most important people in his life: Ruth, the married woman he carried on with for years...the ultra-hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren't still best friends...Sully's son and grandson, for whom he was mostly an absentee figure (and now a regretful one). We also enjoy the company of Doug Raymer, the chief of police who's obsessing primarily over the identity of the man his wife might've been about to run off with before dying in a freak accident...Bath's mayor, the former academic Gus Moynihan, whose wife problems are, if anything, even more pressing...and then there's Carl Roebuck, whose lifelong run of failing upward might now come to ruin. And finally there's Charice Bond - a light at the end of the tunnel that is Chief Raymer's office - as well as her brother, Jerome, who might well be the train barreling into the station.

Everybody's Fool is filled with humor, heart, hard times, and people you can't help but love, possibly because their various faults make them so stridently human. This is classic Russo - and a crowning achievement from one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

©2016 Richard Russo (P)2016 Random House Audio
Contemporary Fiction Family Life Fiction Literary Fiction Sagas Witty Funny Heartfelt
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Mark Bramhall’s gorgeous narration of this deeply satisfying novel makes me wonder what it would be like for a great symphonic conductor to play all the instruments himself. Bramhall is superbly skilled and has a beautiful voice with amazing range, but what astonishes here is his humanity, not to mention sense of humor, as he brings Russo's entire town of North Bath, New York, to madcap life." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Everybody's Fool

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    840
  • 4 Stars
    322
  • 3 Stars
    101
  • 2 Stars
    24
  • 1 Stars
    17
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    822
  • 4 Stars
    261
  • 3 Stars
    78
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    757
  • 4 Stars
    289
  • 3 Stars
    101
  • 2 Stars
    31
  • 1 Stars
    14

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect Follow Up to Nobody's Fool

Empire Falls, Nobody's Fool and Everybody's Fool are 3 great books. I've listened to all of them several times and enjoyed them each time. Richard Russo's books are must reads.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect sequel

Best sequel possible.

For those who haven’t read “Nobody’s Fool”, the prequel, watch the movie; it’s perfectly cast (Paul Newman as Sully, and Bruce Willis as Carl).

Applause.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Grrrrrrrrrreat

Sassiest book I've ever had the privilege to read. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Russo can spin a phrase like none other. Had to read side by side with a dictionary. Starting Nobody's fool today.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Even better than Nobody’s Fool

Listened to this immediately on the heels of the first book in the trilogy. I was disappointed, as I often am when it happens, that a new narrator had taken it on. I soon came to prefer this one, despite the fact that the other was so good. Same feelings about the shift in emphasis in the story. It is filled with compelling, engaging characters and quirky, yet believable, tales. You can’t make this stuff up—but Russo does, creating a can’t put it down listening experience.

I enjoyed this even more than Nobody’s Fool, which I loved. Russo’s dependable wit and style seemed quicker and came even easier.

Can’t wait to begin Somebody’s Fool today.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Russo has done it again!

Another North Bath book that is heartwarming and humorous and all too human.

Listen to the further adventures of Sully and Rub (the man and the dog. You’ll see what I mean.) and laugh your way through all of the heartbreakingly poignant moments only Russo can write.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just a fun listen!

Great diverting plot, mostly excellent narration. I couldn't put it down! If you're looking for a well crafted distraction this is it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

As you might have come to expect from this New York turned Maine writer, this book is a wonderful and intricate story of a cast of characters that even with flaws are loved. Russo gives texture to both his characters and their exchanges. His story reflects the complexities involved in relationships. I do not know how the story will appear to those not familiar with the earlier book nobody's fool, but I cannot think of any better word for this book then brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A return to the world of Bath

Nobody's Fool, the prequel to this story, is one of my favorite audiobooks. The way Ron McLarty voices the characters and the story are a perfect capture of life and events in a small, wintery town. While Mark Bramhall does not use similar voices for the characters (Sully sounds less gruff, Carl more sleazy), he still does a great job, especially with Rub's stutter and portraying Raymer's "two voices." This book is a nice continuation and conclusion to the story, though there are some surprising inconsistencies. We never find out what happened to Rasputin, the dog Sully acquired at the end of Nobody's Fool, and there is a reflective part where it says that Sully's father died while Sully was away fighting in WW2, but Nobody's Fool clearly explains that Sully's father lived to be old and died in a nursing home long after Sully had returned from the war. However, Russo could be referencing Clive Peoples Sr., who did die while Sully was away, as Sully's "father." However, these are minor details that do not detract from the story at all. Roy Perdy returns as a great villain and the book contains some similar themes from the original book. There are some great new characters and a fun twist that make this an enjoyable listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this book!

Another wonderful book from Mr Russo. Mr Bramhall did an excellent job narrating too. thanks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Strange story.
Did not care for this narrator nearly as much as the Nobody's Fool one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!