One of the best novels by Richard Russo. A witty and touching story about how either grace or curse descends on the sleepy provincial town of North Bath - here each of its residents chooses for himself. Donald Sullivan, whom everyone calls Sally, is sixty, and all his life, with triumphant persistence, he has made nothing but mistakes, even if he is by no means a fool. He is lonely, although he is surrounded by a crowd of people, his bad knee sometimes prevents him from moving normally, his friends are such that sometimes he doesn’t even need enemies, and problems rain down on Sally one after another, or maybe he finds them himself. All his life he relied only on himself, he chose his own path, but if this path led to a dead end, then he himself was a fool. A difficult childhood with a despot father, an unlucky marriage, failures one after another - this is Sally, but no one dares to call him a loser, because Sally himself chooses who he should be. And here’s a new problem: a son has shown up in North Bath, with whom Sally barely knows, and something needs to be done with him - otherwise he will repeat the unenviable fate of Sally, a man who attracts troubles, big and small. Late autumn and the onset of winter become another “stupid streak” in the life of “no-fool” Donald Sullivan, and he will again set out to overcome this streak, once again choosing the path of self-destruction, which will be equally joyful and bitter. “Fools” no” is the first book in a trilogy about the town of North Bath, a real encyclopedia of life in the American outback. Irony, humor, warmth, humanity and charming characters. This is a novel about how the stupid things people do can sometimes be much smarter and nobler than the actions of prudent and correct ones.