Begun as a wry story of low level crime set in Boston, Lehane's short novel is a rich mix of humanity, compassion and sudden violence. Animal Rescue was the tale of a lonely and deceptively harmless barman who finds a dog, adopts it and quickly finds himself wrapped in conflict with local hoods and confronted by a terrible dilemma; Lehane has now also expanded it into a movie script (with Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini) which has relocated the action to Brooklyn but is otherwise remarkably faithful to the book. Small-time crime, badly emotionally bruised but utterly believable characters, crime at its most basic, the ordinary poetry and camaraderie of bar life: no one does this better than Lehane. Low key but indispensable.
The film version of The Drop is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14 November 2014. Click below to view the trailer.
Bob Saginowski finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living - no matter the cost.
Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He has written eight novels, A Drink Before the War, Darkness, Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone Baby Gone, Prayers For Rain, Mystic River, Sutter Island, The Given Day and a short story collection, Coronado. Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone have both been made into oscar nominated films.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Mr Lehane worked as a counsellor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar. He lives in the Boston area.
