Dennis Lehane has written a few books that have been made into movies: Mystic River and, more recently, Gone Baby Gone. I was excited to see this new book – or perhaps I should I call it epic, because it’s 700 pages long. But don’t let its length put you off.

Set in Boston just before the end of World War I, the story centres on a time in American history when the country was not only divided by race, but also by red-baiting and unionism. Danny Coughlin is the son of a decorated police chief, anxious to prove himself. He lives in a part of Boston populated by poor Italian and Irish immigrants, susceptible to political coercion. Coughlin is encouraged to go undercover to foil any Bolshevik activities, but his endeavours are compromised at every turn. Meanwhile, Luther Lawrence is a young black man who has to run from past mistakes and make a new life for himself in the more tolerant North.

In the prologue, we first encounter Luther playing a softball match against Babe Ruth, and it is this mix of historical fact and fictionalised characters which makes The Given Day truly engrossing. The amazing cast of characters and events also includes leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W.E.B. Dubois and a young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover. This is a great novel, set to become a classic.