By Dawn McNutt
Special to THE DAILY

On Sept. 25, the long-awaited new book from much-heralded author Richard Russo arrived in book stores. Six years after his best-selling novel “Empire Falls” won the Pulitzer Prize, he is back and better than ever, once again capturing the understated lives of neighbors and friends in upstate New York in this masterful new work of fiction

This time the setting is Thomaston, where Lou and Sarah have been living for all 40 years of their marriage. They are off on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy to see an old childhood friend who has become a famous artist.

Lou wants to write a novel about his hometown and his eccentric family, and hopes to find answers to long ago questions that have remained throughout his life.

His wife Sarah is also a mystery. Once upon a time she was a talented artist who loved a brilliant painter named Bobby. She married Lou instead and became a mother. The happily ever after part never seemed to appear.

It is these three characters who are at the heart of the novel. Each of their lives and those of their families are chronicled for the 50 years during which this novel takes place.

We learn why Lou, Sarah and Bobby became the somewhat sad, empty people they are.

Stifled ambitions and unfulfilled dreams can turn even promising newlyweds into shells of their former selves, and unresolved conflicts from childhood have a way of creeping back into your life when you least expect them to.

Issues of family, upbringing

At the center of all Russo’s novels are the issues of family, whether you can ever completely leave behind your upbringing as well as the pain that those you love the most can affect you throughout your life.

“Bridge of Sighs” is part sweeping family saga, part mystery and part ode to the dying, blue-collar mill of Thomaston that once stood tall and proud.

It’s a place familiar to anyone who is a fan of Richard Russo’s novels, as most have the same setting of the once prosperous town, now full of disappointed, quietly desperate people sleepwalking though life, hoping to be unnoticed.

He is a master at observing the nuances of the working class and what it means to pin your hopes and dreams on a town that can’t ever keep its promises.

Russo writes better than anyone, except maybe Richard Ford, about what it’s like to spend an entire life bitterly disappointed, unable to feel anything beyond compliance. You don’t just pity his characters, you feel their desperation and heartbreak.

The reader can visualize them walking around their bleak, empty town — just waiting.

They are waiting for anything or something or someone to come along, ease their pain and tell them tomorrow will be different. Not better, just different.

This is a soulful, melancholy novel that will sink into your thoughts perhaps without your permission. It’s unavoidable. Characters so real and richly developed have a way of doing that.

A story this skillfully written takes its prisoners late into the night. With a book-light perhaps. Or an old overhead lamp. Either one will work until the morning sun appears.

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