Our Next Book: The Given Day

Now that we’ve finished reading The Killing Tree and had the chance to chat with Rachel Keener it is time for us to move on to our next novel which will be The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.  This book was chosen by Jennifer who is a fan of some of Lehane’s earlier work.  He has written such novels as Shutter Island, Mystic River, and Gone, Baby, Gone.   The Given Day is set in Boston at the end of World War I and tells the story of two families – one white and one black.

Janet Maslin reviewed the book for The New York Times, titling the article “A Vision of Old Boston in All Its Angry Power.” (Click on the title to read the article.)  If her article title is any indication of what the book will be like, it should be an adventurous ride.

And from the HarperCollins page on the book:

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.

This book promises to be an exciting walk through our country’s history.

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