“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 … 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.
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Fans of Mystic River or Gone, Baby, Gone will love this book. Whether you read the stories or watched the films, you know the dark gritty realism Lehane uses in delving through his characters’ psyches. This story is set post WW1 in Boston and intertwines historical events and personages with a twisting tale of 2 families – one white and one black …
Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers but somehow I hadn’t read this book until recently. Totally engrossing, a lot of interesting historical facts that sent me to the internet to do more research. A sweeping tale of our American past. Characters to love and some to hate, and some to weep for.
In the right hands, this would make a great movie. Set in 1914 Boston, it chronicles the life and times in vivid details. A central plot line are the events leading up to the famous police strike and the early attempts of the unions. Then there’s the anti-Bolshevism frenzy; the influenza epidemic and the racial divide of the day. Lehane is a …
As usual for this author, well written and a very good read.
This book got me to be a Dennis LeHane fan as we open up.with a baseball game between the Negro baseball stars and Babe Ruth and the American League all stars…it only got better from there
A great read, blending actual history of Boston in 1919 and unforgettable characters who manage to cope with all that’s happening. It’s kind of the first in a trilogy. The other two follow a more minor character. I think it’s the best of the three.
Loved it. Lehane is a master !
Dennis Lehane is a master story-teller. This was a tour de force–I especially loved it because it was different than his mysteries and thrillers. This is historical fiction at its finest.
one of the raw books I actually finished. My first book by this author
I was very disappointed with the book. The summary was quite misleading stating it was a presentation of two families in post World War 2 setting. The actual book opens with heavy baseball influence and continues on into a boxing setting of various people. It is heavy with vulgar language, which I take was supposed to illustrate life in Boston …
The characters in this book never leave me. They’re so vividly drawn. And I have a fictitious crush on Danny. This was such an interesting time, with the Spanish Flu (which most people don’t even know about) and the way things were before unionization. Great plot, wonderful parallel narratives that intertwine beautifully to create an inclusive …
This is the book that made me fall in love with Lehane. I read it many years ago and remember it well, which I can say about very, very few books. I like to learn while I am entertained and there were so many things in our history I had not known to which Lehane gives life. Lehane knows and uses language, something many writers don’t seem to …
This was the first book I read by Denis Lehane. If I say I have read many more of his books, would you agree he is a great writer? I became an addict of his detective stories, and that was never my choice for reading. The Given Day was different from the subsequent detectives. I enjoyed them, BUT, I would LOVE it if he put out another with the …
A phenomenal story set in a truly fascinating time in American history. I have yet to find a Lehane novel I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.
Great plot and very full characters !
This is a BIG book. Big story, big characters,big city of Boston. If you have not read Dennis Lehane, read this one.
If you are interested in the issues facing Americans in the post WWI era, you will learn a lot from this novel. Terrorism, strikes, police riots, and race relations are explored in depth through the lives of fictional characters living in Boston. The author also uses the character of Babe Ruth to advance the story through his eyes.
Interesting characters, history of the period.
Not the story I was expecting,,,
Another great read from Lehane. Beautifully written story of two families against the backdrop of the beginning of the police officers union in Boston. Excellent read!