Booklist Finds New Novel Quite Fetching

The first review of Laura Whitcomb's forthcoming novel THE FETCH is in, and we're pleased to tell you that it's a starred one!

Booklist says:

Whitcomb's unique new book is a fascinating, intricately structured vision of the afterlife....The rich descriptions, particularly of the exquisitely imagined afterlife, are exceptionally drawn, as are the sympathetic characters and the unusual premise. A challenging book with an intriguing conclusion, this will lead thoughtful readers to spirited discussions.

Read the full review here and look for the book on shelves in January!

So Do They Think The Sox Will Win The Series?

Though The Given Day has received rave notices since being released in late September in the US, many reviews contain a line alluding to Lehane breaking out beyond his genre writing. This is a back-handed compliment, dismissive of his thrillers. Lehane seems mildly exasperated at the implied criticism, yet shrugs it off. "There is a limited vocabulary to reviews and a constraint of the form. Early in my career people compared me to Chandler, because I was 'gritty' and that is just easy for reviewers to write without actually thinking. But, if anything, my books are not like Chandler's, but more the bastard children of Dashiell Hammett."

Click here to read more of The Bookseller's fascinating conservation with Dennis Lehane.

Love From Across The Pond

Dennis Lehane's UK publisher just sent us this lovely quote from Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories and One Good Turn: "The Given Day stands in the great tradition of the American novel, setting an enthralling personal story against a great sweep of history. The result is epic, romantic and intelligent. I loved it."

The Cure For Grief Surprises The Washington Post

If you weren't sure if Nellie Hermann's novel sounded like something you'd like to read, perhaps this review from the Washington Post will convince you that this debut is well worth your time:

I admit to having had misgivings as I cracked the ominously titled The Cure for Grief. Another autobiographical novel by a young author about a child recovering from family trauma. To up the emotional ante, the kid's father is a Holocaust survivor.

But Nellie Hermann's first novel is proof that in the hands of a skillful writer, the most familiar themes can still surprise us with their potency and truth.

More persuasive arguments here.

We Thought It Was Gorgeous, Too

The reviews for Dennis Lehane's THE GIVEN DAY keep rolling in.

The Houston Chronicle says this "fast, suspenseful read" is a "knockout novel," while the Atlanta Journal Constitution calls it a "magnificent, almost drunkenly ambitious new novel."

As always, you can read the full reviews (and many, many more) here.

The Given Day Hits Bestseller Lists Across The Nation!

It's #7 on the San Francisco Chronicle's list, #6 on the Washington Post's list, #2 at the Denver Post...and #1 over at the Boston Globe!

The praise also continues to pour in from around the country.

The Chicago Tribune says the "prologue is as fine a piece of writing as you are liable to come across this year, or maybe the next several, and it is also a great curtain-raiser for the latest work from a writer who is becoming, book by book, the foremost chronicler of social class in America."

The Oregonian says, "Dennis Lehane's 'The Given Day' is a terrific book, a historical novel that covers events both well-known (the Boston police strike of 1919, the sale of Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees) and long-forgotten (the molasses explosion that killed 21 people in Boston, the early career of J. Edgar Hoover)."

Finally, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls the novel "a triumph of the fictional imagination."

If you want to read more about the book, you can read the New York Daily News' interview with Mr. Lehane here.

Even More Given Day News

More reviews of Dennis Lehane's latest are in!

The New Yorker says, "He brings vividly to life the struggles that the working classes faced in pursuit of decent working conditions and a fair wage."

The Seattle Post chimes in by declaring that "there is no need to hold one's breath about whether Lehane's surprising leap will succeed. Early rave reviews of 'The Given Day' have decreed this is one of the biggest books of fall, with gripping storytelling and a fascinating glimpse of a long-forgotten tumult."

The Rocky Mountain News asserts:

The novel is an admirable stride forward for Lehane, who acknowledges that such radical social change is never easy and yet casts a cynical eye toward a government that would manipulate society for its own purposes. It's a complex view that recognizes that the world dragged forward is never the same as the one left behind. Here's hoping the novelist's own march towards progress continues unabated.

Oh, and we alomost forgot to mention that THE GIVEN DAY is #6 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list!

Dennis Lehane in BookPage

The problem with catching literary lightning as Dennis Lehane did with Mystic River is, how do you follow it? Now that he has done so, and even surpassed himself, with his deeply moving historical novel The Given Day, the problem falls to readers to find something--anything--that doesn't pale in comparison once they've closed the covers on this 720-page masterpiece. Quite simply, The Given Day is about as close to the great American novel as we're likely to read until...well, until Lehane writes another.

So begins Jay MacDonald's interview with Dennis Lehane in this month's BookPage. Click here to read the rest.

He's Number 3!

Following yesterday's news that THE GIVEN DAY is #3 on the Independent Booksellers list, we were thrilled to learn that on October 12th Mr. Lehane's novel will debut at that same spot on another list -- in The New York Times!

More Lehane News and Reviews

The Christian Science Monitor says, "Lehane certainly knows how to spin a yarn....Lehane also knows how to reimagine history, vividly dramatizing one of the darker episodes in this nation's annals."

Bloomberg.com praises his "lean, readable prose" and declares:

It's a book simple in plot, busy in narrative. There is romance, foiled and fulfilled, corruption and courage, an explosion at a molasses tank and a truly scary chase involving Danny's teenage brother and a pedophile with a straight razor. Beyond that I must be vague because so much remains unresolved until late in the proceedings, and if you're going to commit to 704 pages of Lehane, you deserve the rewards of his considerable suspense-building.

It seems like readers are agreeing with all of the critics, because THE GIVEN DAY has already climbed to #3 on the Independent Booksellers' List!