Live by Night
By Dennis Lehane
- Release Date: 2012-10-02
- Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Description
From New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane comes this epic, unflinching tale of the making and unmaking of a gangster in the Prohibition Era of the Roaring Twenties—now a Warner Bros. movie starring Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana, and Sienna Miller.
Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world.
Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.
But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one—neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover—can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But 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 of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.
Reviews
Couldn't put it down
5By jazzbass12Awesome read. Great characters and help my interest.The Given Day Was Better
3By FpianoThe book was pretty good as long as its setting was Boston. The rest of the book was one long melodrama.Good story
4By Peter 14Interesting read but somewhat typical gangster story. Enjoyable!couldn't put it down.
5By Well done.A fast paced thrill ride that engulfs the reader with epically descriptive story telling and a plot full of twists and turns. Read it, you'll be glad you did.Live by Night
5By Blanch is DeadComes on fast and furious and you can't put it down as it burns in your hands.Absolutely a great read!
5By SalakDennis Lehane is one of our greatest storytellers. I'm thankful that I've enjoyed his previous books so much that I jumped into this one. Can't say enough about it. Do yourself a favor and curl up with this one. I stayed up until 2 AM to finish it, which I never do. Looking forward to see what Ben Affleck does with the material. I'm confident it'll be a great movie and more than likely win some major awards. Please keep it up Mr. Lehane!Good read
5By SAppelquistFirst Lehane novel I read. Enjoyed it. Will read more of his work.Live by night
5By Sportyc1Although this book took a little to get me hooked, once it did, I couldn't put it down! As usual, Dennis Lehane is an expert at giving you all the nitty gritty details that truly make a story complete! I was not disappointed at all. Get through the initial first few chapters and it begins to pick up at a rapid pace.His best yet
5By Mikesax44I've read all of Lehane's books and this is his best yet. I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for his next.A-mazing!
5By Hvnlb56I seriously couldn't put this book down. It's a day later and I'm still thinking heavily about the characters. I loved everything about this book and (fingers crossed) it will make a great movie!Wow!
5By TesstafarianThis is my first book by this author and it won't be my last. I was captured from the beginning and remained enthralled throughout the whole story.Great
5By Amuniz804One of the best books I have ever read. Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book.Outstanding
5By SEO4242Absolutely, a great read, made even better if you read "The Given Day" (though it's not necessary to have read it-this one stands alone nicely). As with every one of his books, i was blown away...this guy can write dialogue and set a scene like few others can (which is to say, you feel as though you're right there, hearing what the characters hear, seeing and feeling every sight and emotion described.) As a Boston girl, I'll admit to bias, but Mr. Lehane's knowledge of our fair city is incredible, and his storytelling ability is unsurpassed. I'll leave the synopsis of the book to the professionals-but if you're a fan of historical fiction, or gangster stories, or love stories, or family sagas, this one is a must read. Trust, you will not be disappointed.Not a sequel, OK story
2By Foosh9Lehane wrote a wonderful book in The Given Day. It is a Mitcheneresque look at a time in history when America was coming into her own. The end of the war, the end of the abuse of labor, the start of the great American middle class. A time that begat the great country and power we became by the end of the 20th century, told through the families of poor Irish immigrants and poor rural blacks. A great read with characters we cared about. Live by Night was the highly anticipated book to pick up where The Given Day ended, until it didn't. This is a very different type of story with fleeting reference to The Given Day's story line. It is a story like Scarface about the criminal underbelly that grew as America grew but without characters that held our interest and passion. It seems a lazy follow up to a very good novel, with a predictable storyline and finish. Lehane could do much better, has done much better than this. He started with a story that had so much promise, only to disappoint with what feels like a rush to meet a deadline. He's a great storyteller, but this is his weakest effort to date. Hope he gets his mojo back next time. He's much better than this.Live by Night
5By SusieMac46Dennis Lehane never disappoints his readers. This book was no exception. Fast paced, highly readable, extraordinarily engrossing.
