This is a sprawling, enthralling novel… every sentence is a treat, every image vivid….an extraordinary freshness and vitality.
Toby Clements Sunday Telegraph
 

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.

Beautifully written…ambitious and hugely impressive.
Time Out

This is history brought thrillingly to life and it makes for a captivating read from start to finish.
Siobhan Murphy Metro

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

This is a book with Big Ambition written all over it: a thick, doorstopping, compulsively readable epic.
Douglas Kennedy The Times

A grand historical epic that rather conspicuously sets its cap at the status of Great American Novel.
Tom Sutcliffe The Independent

Wrenchingly suspenseful...A majestic, fiery epic [with] a rich, intricate story.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

[A] brilliant historical epic. Lehane earned his reputation for writing crime thrillers...And the same hard-boiled skills - and sheer love of storytelling remain in place now he's turned to something more ambitious.
James Walton The Daily Telegraph

A brawling, brawny, muscular epic - exactly what great mainstream novels used to be.
LEE CHILD

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.
Carla Mackay The Daily Mail

Dennis Lehane takes on the volatile beginnings of the American century and, like the master storyteller he is, effortlessly makes that vast canvas come alive. A rich and satisfying epic.
STEWART O'NAN, author of THE NIGHT COUNTRY

[An] engrossing epic [that] carries serious moral gravity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Although Lehane is keen to offer a complete historical portrait of Boston after the First World War, he does not stint on characters and plot either. It is an accomplished balancing act.
Leo Robson The Daily Express

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