Live by Night

Joe Coughlin is nineteen when he meets Emma Gould. A smalltime thief in 1920s Boston, he is told to cuff her while his accomplices raid the casino she works for. But Joe falls in love with Emma - and his life changes for ever.That meeting is the beginning of Joe's journey to becoming one of the nation's most feared and respected gangsters. It is a journey beset by violence, double-crossing, drama and pain. And it is a journey into the soul of prohibition-era America...A powerful, deeply moving novel, Live By Night is a tour-de-force by Dennis Lehane, writer on The Wire and author of modern classics such as Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and The Given Day.

So beautifully written and so sharp in its details and atmosphere that it's no wonder Lehane's books attract filmmakers with such ease, Lehane's thrillers mix viscerally violent excitement with a thorough airing of ethical dilemmas, Lehane is one of the great contemporary American crime writers, Dennis Lehane's speciality is the fast-paced gangster thriller that's also a deeply felt novel. His latest, about a Boston criminal, doesn't disappoint on either count... I guarantee that all you'll be able to do is keep on turning the pages. The prose crackles with Chandleresque jokes, the narrative never flags and there's even a genuinely heart-stopping love story. In addition to all that, the book beautifully evokes the entire era of early Thirties Prohibition America, This is a book that should put [Lehane's] name right up there where it belongs, right up there alongside Doctorow and Dreiser

Dennis Lehane is the author of bestsellers Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, and Live By Night, all of which have been made into award-winning films. He is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed authors of his generation and the recipient of the Shamus Award for Best First Novel, the Edgar, Anthony and Barry awards for Best Novel, and the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction. His work has been translated into over three dozen languages. He has written for The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Bloodline, and the forthcoming Mr Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novel. Dennis was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and lives in California with his family.