RICHARD RUSSO Bridge of Sighs *****

What a marvellous book! So how come I'd never heard of Richard Russo before? He's won the Pulitzer Prize for another of his novels and I can see why.

It's one of those books where you marvel at the author's ability to create such totally rounded, believable characters. Every thought they have, every word they say and everything they do seems in character. And I grew to love them all and felt almost bereft to leave them at the end.

The theme is change. Do people ever change? Or is it just their circumstances?

At the heart of the story are two friends who have grown up in the same small town in New York State. One, Lou, never moves away, and like his father is a determined optimist who wants nothing to change. The other, Bobby, is a dangerous, edgy character who becomes an artist and ends up living in Venice. Add to the mix Lou's feisty mother, his equally feisty wife, Bobby's violent father and ever-pregnant mother and it's totally compelling despite being 528 pages long.

It's beautifully written too. Every sentence moves smoothly into the next in a very unflashy way.

But beware. If anyone tries to make it into a movie it'll probably be gushingly sentimental. In the book, Russo manages to describe decent people and love, without falling into that trap.