The Given Day - (Joe Coughlin) by Dennis Lehane (Paperback)

About the Book

Dennis Lehane's beautifully written novel tells the story of two families--one black, one white--swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power at the end of World War I. Coursing through the pivotal events of a turbulent epoch, it explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself.

Book Synopsis

"Gut-wrenching. . . . A majestic, fiery epic. The Given Dayis a huge, impassioned, intensively researched book that brings history alive."--New York Times

Now
available with a contemporary look, a beautifully written novel of American
history, set at the end of the Great War; an unflinching, utterly spectacular
family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation dangling between a
well-patterned past and an unpredictable future from acclaimed, New York
Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane

Dennis
Lehane's beautifully written novel tells the story of two families--one black,
one white--swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants
and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for
survival and power at the end of World War I. Coursing through the pivotal events of a turbulent epoch, it
explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at
war with, and in the thrall of, itself.

Review Quotes

"Heartfelt and moving. . . . Lehane deserves to be included among the most interesting and accomplished American novelists of any genre or category." - Washington Post Book World

"This may be Lehane's finest work. . . . But The Given Day is more than a history lesson. . . . Lehane captures the essence of being American in a fast-changing society that eerily reflects our own." - USA Today

"The Given Day is a vast historical novel. . . . Spectacular details. . . . Finely thought-out. . . . . Many stunningly managed scenes." - Boston Globe

"Steeped in history but wearing its research lightly, The Given Day is a meaty, rich, old-fashioned and satisfying tale. I'd call it Lehane's masterpiece." - Seattle Times

"Passionate and powerful. . . . [Lehane] is becoming, book by book, the foremost chronicler of social class in America. . . . Lehane is trying to get his arms around the origins of modern America, the divide between red states and blue states, the great cultural cleaver that splits the country right down the middle . . . [in this] massive, ambitious novel." - Chicago Tribune

"Gut-wrenching force. . . . A majestic, fiery epic. . . . The Given Day is a huge, impassioned, intensively researched book that brings history alive." - New York Times

"[A] work of admirable ambition and scope. . . . Lehane is as much like contemporaries George Pelecanos and Richard Price as he is like the bygone Boston-based John P. Marquand, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Fantastical real-life events . . . thread their way through Dennis Lehane's ambitious historical novel, THE GIVEN DAY. This may be Lehane's finest work. His understanding of history, mixed with his skill as a writer . . . brings alive a period that sounds like the early 21st century. . . . Lehane captures these turbulent times, focusing mainly on the roiling atmosphere in Boston and the lead-up to the city's infamous police strike in 1919. He binds the era's historical fabric to real and imagined characters who represent all that was good and bad about this colorful time. . . . But THE GIVEN DAY is more than a history lesson. . . . Lehane captures the essence of being American in a fast-changing society that eerily reflects our own." - USA Today

"One of the fall's biggest books--and not just because it's 704 pages. It's Lehane's most ambitious and literary work." - USA Today

"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

"A splendid flowering of the talent previously demonstrated in his crime fiction. . . . A vision of redemption and a triumph of the human spirit. In short, this nail-biter carries serious moral gravity." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Brilliantly constructed. . . . Like E. L. Doctorow in Ragtime, Lehane captures the sense of a country coming of age, vividly dramatizing how the conflicting emotions and tortured dreams that drive individual human lives also send a nation roiling forward." - Booklist (starred review)

"Lehane's first historical novel is a clear winner. . . . As good as it gets." - Library Journal (starred review)

"A historical epic that is easily the most ambitious work of Dennis Lehane's career. . . . THE GIVEN DAY aspires to be nothing less than the Great American Novel. . . . If Lehane was ever a singles hitter, now he's swinging for the fences." - Kirkus Reviews

"The problem falls to readers to find something--anything--that doesn't pale in comparison once they've closed the covers on this 720-page masterpiece. Quite simply, THE GIVEN DAY is about as close to the great American novel as we're likely to read until ... well, until Lehane writes another." - BookPage

"If you're swinging for the fences, it only makes sense that your novel begin with a lengthy, and very tasty, story about Babe Ruth. That Dennis Lehane sustains that level of play . . . is what gives THE GIVEN DAY a kind of greatness. . . . Lehane dazzles." - Chicago Sun-Times

"Here's one way to get people excited about the nation's past: Get Dennis Lehane to write the history books. . . . A meticulously researched tale that in the hands of this master storyteller jumps right off the page and hollers." - St. Petersburg Times

"As much a thriller as any of Lehane's previous work. Even beyond the historical events, THE GIVEN DAY qualifies as a sprawling, sweeping epic. . . . Lehane's masterful packing and precise prose make the story speed by." - Orlando Sentinel

"Packed with dramatic turning points. . . . Lehane has tried to capture the zeitgeist of an era even nuttier and more tumultuous than our own, and succeeded."" - Entertainment Weekly

"A gripping historical novel. . . . Infused with the same dark drama that set apart his earlier books." - Parade

"Rollicking, brawling, gritty, political, and always completely absorbing, THE GIVEN DAY is a rich and satisfying epic. Readers, get ready to feast. This is a big book you won't want to put down." - Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster, A Prayer for the Dying, and Snow Angels

"A brawling, brawny, muscular epic--exactly what great mainstream novels used to be." - Lee Child

"Lehane has created a novel of such momentum we cannot help cheering Danny on in his impossible fight. On this front and others THE GIVEN DAY, like John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy, is a human meat grinder of a book." - New York Times Book Review

"Spectacular." - Boston Globe