The Given Day
A Novel
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4.4 • 316 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
"Gut-wrenching force...A majestic, fiery epic. The Given Day is a huge, impassioned, intensively researched book that brings history alive." - The New York Times Dennis Lehane, the New York Times bestselling author of Live by Night—now a Warner Bros. movie starring Ben Affleck—offers an unflinching family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation caught between a well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. This beautifully written novel of American history 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If this historical epic from Dennis Lehane teaches us anything about American history, it’s that the challenges we face today are nothing new. In 1918, young Boston cop Danny Coughlin is manipulated by his police captain dad and a young J. Edgar Hoover into infiltrating the police department’s still-forming union. Meanwhile, Luther Laurence, a Black amateur baseball player, flees Tulsa for Boston under shady circumstances and winds up working for Danny’s father. What follows is a suspenseful story full of blackmail, betrayal, and changing allegiances. Lehane’s historical details are as on point as the novel’s themes of corruption, class conflict, and racism. He has an amazing talent for creating settings so real, you feel like you’re right there. The Given Day is such an exciting read, you won’t realize how much history you’ve learned until it’s over.
Customer Reviews
Great read!
A wonderful story from so many perspectives! I used it in the gym everyday and the time flew by....lost track of my exercise time because I was so captivated by the book. Will definitely read other works by the author.
Bravo
Outstanding book, with a thorough history lesson (or refresher, for some) but more entertaining than most action movies. His characters come to life and stay with you to the end, leaving an impression I'm confident will never leave.
The Given Day
Good but on the subject there are better books, The Fall of Giants for example, is to me more cohesive and faster developing story.