The Given Day

Description

The NYT bestselling crime writer brings us a masterful American literary epic. Danny Coughlin is Boston Police Department royalty and the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains. His beat is the predominately Italian neighbourhoods of the North End where political dissent is in the air - fresh and intoxicating. On the hunt for hard-line radicals as a favour to his father, Danny is drawn into the ideological fray and finds his loyalties compromised as the police department itself becomes swept up in potentially violent labour strife.Luther Lawrence is on the run. A suspect in a nightclub shooting in Oklahoma, he flees to Boston, leaving his wife behind. He lands a job in the Coughlin household and meets Danny and the family's Irish maid, Nora, who once had a powerful bond. As the mystery of their relationship unravels, Luther finds himself befriending them both even as the turmoil in his own life threatens to overwhelm him. Desperate to return to his wife and child, he must confront the past that has followed him and settle scores with enemies old and new.Set at the end of the Great War, The Given Day is meticulously researched and expertly plotted, it will transport you to an unforgettable time and place.

Dennis Lehane grew up in the Dorchester section of Boston's inner-city. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a counsellor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar. He has an MFA from Florida International University, and is the writer-in-residence at Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida, where he runs the Writers in Paradise Writers' Conference. He and his wife divide their time between St. Petersburg and Boston. For more information on Dennis Lehane and his novels, visit his website: www.dennislehanebooks.com

This is a sprawling, enthralling novel... every sentence is a treat, every image vivid... an extraordinary freshness and vitality * Sunday Telegraph * This is a book with Big Ambition written all over it: a thick, doorstopping, compulsively readable epic * The Times * Wrenchingly suspenseful... A majestic, fiery epic [with] a rich, intricate story * The New York Times * The acclaimed author of Mystic River has produced a contender for the Big American Novel... not only a powerful, beautifully written novel, but the best kind of history lesson * Daily Mail * The Given Day stands in the great tradition of the American novel, setting an enthralling personal story against a great sweep of history. The result is epic, romantic and intelligent. I loved it -- KATE ATKINSON