Nobody's Fool Books in Order

Richard Russo’s North Bath trilogy is a love letter to the sort of town that usually gets left off the map. Located in upstate New York, North Bath was once a destination for its healing waters, but those days are long gone. Now, it is a place defined by rust, bad luck, and a stubborn refusal to just fade away. The series immerses you in the daily rhythms of this fading community, where everybody knows your business and memories last longer than the storefronts.

At the center of it all is Donald “Sully” Sullivan. He is one of contemporary fiction’s great creations—a sixty-year-old construction worker with a bad knee, a worse attitude, and a surprising amount of charm. Sully isn’t exactly a role model. He rents a room from his elderly landlady, feuds with his employer, and spends too much time on a barstool at the Sans Souci. Yet, despite his best efforts to remain unattached, he is the glue holding his messy corner of the world together.

The books are never just about one man, though. Russo fills North Bath with a sprawling, chaotic ensemble of neighbors, rivals, and friends. There is the anxious police chief Doug Raymer, whose authority is constantly undermined by his own insecurities. There is Carl Roebuck, the local contractor who serves as both Sully’s nemesis and his lifeline. These relationships drive the narrative, moving effortlessly between slapstick comedy and genuine heartbreak.

It is a world where small grievances can last a lifetime.

While the first book, Nobody's Fool, stands perfectly well on its own, Russo eventually returned to North Bath over two decades later. Everybody's Fool picks up the thread with the same sharp wit, looking at how time treats these characters. The town hasn’t had a miraculous turnaround, and neither have the people. Instead, the story digs deeper into their regrets and the darker, funnier sides of aging.

The final installment, Somebody's Fool, shifts the focus toward the next generation. Here, the narrative torch passes to Sully’s son, Peter, who has to reckon with the heavy shadow his father cast. The trilogy evolves from a study of a singular, stubborn man into a broader saga about legacy. It asks difficult questions about what we inherit from our parents—the good, the bad, and the confusing—and how we manage to move forward when the past won’t let go.

What makes these novels special isn’t a high-stakes plot or a sudden twist. It is the overwhelming sense of humanity. Russo treats his characters with dignity, even when they are making terrible decisions. Reading this series feels like sitting at the corner of the bar, listening to the best storyteller in town explain exactly how things went wrong, and why it’s all going to be okay anyway.