Irish American novelist Denis Lehane’s tale of love and revenge in the Prohibition era - “Live by Night” is his finest achievement

Lehane pens an epic story of Irish mobsters, petty criminals and women so alluring that men are willing to die for them.

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CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

Irish Voice Arts Editor

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Dennis Lehane.

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That personal connection makes the fictional one come to life. Although throughout his career Lehane has focused on Irish Americans, and the darker chapters of our history here, he has never received criticism for showing us up. Has he ever experienced pushback?

“I've given that a lot of thought. I think the reason I haven't is that I show warts and all. I don't just show the warts or I'd never hear the end of it,” he says.

“I also show why it's fun. I show what a block party in a working class neighborhood looks like. I show how wonderful it is to be in a pub with your friends. I'm giving you the real thing.

“The Irish don't forgive you if you’re a carpet bagger or a tourist, but if you're an insider and you show the way it really is that's okay. If that's what you do then I find the pushback is minimal.”

Live By Night succeeds because it shows us the unbridled exuberance of a country coming into its own. And it's that great melting depicted at the absolute surfeit of that moment, from 1900 to the fifties where everyone saw the yield of that exchange.

It was the time of the American cities. The great cities built by immigrants. Lehane wants to tell its secret histories and he does it like no other writer.

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