New York Times
bestselling author Dennis Lehane’s
World
Gone By
continues the epic story of Joe Coughlin from
The Given Day
and
Live by Night
through World War II, as he struggles to navigate the
criminal underworld between Cuba and Florida.
“Suspenseful, devious, well-constructed and as filled
with ethical questions as it is with gangsters.” —
Ten years have passed since Joe Coughlin’s enemies killed
his wife and destroyed his empire, and much has changed. Prohibition is dead,
the world is at war again, and Joe’s son, Tomás, is growing up. Now the former
crime kingpin works as a consigliore to the Bartolo crime family, traveling
between Tampa and Cuba, his wife’s homeland.
A master who moves in and out of the black, white, and Cuban
underworlds, Joe effortlessly mixes with Tampa’s social elite, U.S. Naval
intelligence, the Lansky-Luciano mob, and the mob-financed government of
Fulgencio Batista. He has everything—money, power, a beautiful mistress, and
anonymity.
But success cannot protect him from the dark truth of his
past—and ultimately, the wages of a lifetime of sin will finally be paid in full.
Dennis Lehane vividly recreates the rise of the mob during a
world at war, from a masterfully choreographed Ash Wednesday gun battle in the
streets of Ybor City to a chilling, heartbreaking climax in a Cuban sugar cane
field. Told with verve and skill,
World Gone By
is a stunning work of
historical fiction from one of “the most interesting and accomplished American
novelists” (
Washington Post
).