Elsewhere: A Memoir - Softcover

"An intimate and powerful family story . . . impeccably told." --Chicago Tribune

"Moving and darkly funny. . . . Russo mines grace from his gritty hometown." --The Wall Street Journal

"One of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years. . . . Russo's intellectual and emotional honesty are remarkable." --NPR Books

"Russo conjures the incredible bond between single mother and only child in a way that makes his story particularly powerful." --The Daily Beast

"Redemption is always the prize in a Russo story. Nowhere do we see that more clearly than in Elsewhere, a brave little book in which a writer spins deprivation into advantage, suffering into wisdom, and a broken mother into a muse." --The Washington Post

"Vivid . . . devastating. . . . Russo brings the remarkable compassion he's known for in his fiction to this account." --The Christian Science Monitor

"Russo is the Bruce Springsteen of novelists. . . . In a paragraph or even a phrase, he can summon up a whole world." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

"Funny and winning. . . . This stirring book belongs to Jean and Rick." --The New York Times Book Review

"Filled with insights, by turn tender and tough, about human fidelity, frailty, forbearance, and fortitude." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A quietly riveting portrait. . . . Elsewhere depicts the tenacious grip that Gloversville exerted on mother and son alike." --The New York Observer

"Exquisite. . . . Elsewhere is a memoir and a bravura essay, a meditation on negotiating flaws." --The Miami Herald

"Richard Russo has mined his childhood with enormous energy, humor and craftsmanship. . . . Readers discovering Russo through this memoir and then returning to his first few titles are embarking on a delightful voyage with a gifted writer about whom they now know a great deal." --The Seattle Times

"Affecting. . . . Russo's parallel themes of people and place come together elegantly." --San Francisco Chronicle

"A real-life mystery about his mother's demons. . . . Russo writes without bitterness, but with the kind of clear-eyed compassion he bestows on his fictional characters." --USA Today

"Rich and layered. . . . Russo's memoir is an honest book about a universal subject: those familial bonds that only get trickier with time." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Outstanding." --Chicago Sun-Times