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Back to topLive by Night: A Novel (Paperback)
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October 2012 Indie Next List
“This is a stunning epic of a young Irish gangster coming up in the vicious underworld of the Prohibition era who carries the loaded pedigree of being the son of the Boston police chief. Knocked off his game by his first great love, he falls prey to the Italian mob boss who makes him his own and then punishes him for his success. From Charlestown to Tampa to Havana, this stay-up-all-night page-turner is rich in both history and suspense.”
— Elizabeth Houghton Barden, Big Hat Books, Indianapolis, IN
Description
“A meticulously crafted portrait of our violent national past.”—Washington Post Book World
Now available with a contemporary look, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane’s epic, unflinching tale of Prohibition, the Roaring Twenties, and one man’s rise from Boston petty thief to the Gulf Coast’s most successful rum runner.
Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing, and enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price, and one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. Until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt.
Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.
About the Author
Dennis Lehane is the author of thirteen novels—including the New York Times bestsellers Live by Night; Moonlight Mile; Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day—as well as Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play. He grew up in Boston, MA and now lives in California with his family.
Praise For…
“Lehane’s novel carves its own unique place in the Prohibition landscape. . . . This is an utterly magnetic novel on every level, a reimagining of the great themes of popular fiction—crime, family, passion, betrayal—set against an exquisitely rendered historical backdrop.” — Booklist (starred review)
“LIVE BY NIGHT transcends the familiar and assumes an unimpeachable reality of its own. . . . [A] meticulously crafted portrait of our violent national past.” — Washington Post Book World
“Masterful. . . . Lehane has created a mature, quintessentially American story that will appeal to readers of literary and crime fiction alike.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“LIVE BY NIGHT is Crime Noir 101, as taught by the best of its current practitioners. . . . A sentence-by-sentence pleasure. You are in the hands of an expert. And you’ll know it.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times