For the first time in Russian—an epic bestseller by a recognized master of modern American prose, author of such landmark neo-noir works as “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island,” both adapted for film, respectively, by Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. “The Drop” (as announced) is a huge step forward for Lehane, a confident bid for that notorious Great American Novel that has been awaited for so long—and apparently, it has been delivered. This is a family saga with elements of a crime novel; a polyphonic chronicle based on real events; a story of all-consuming love that will overcome any obstacle. The America depicted by Lehane enters an era of enormous change: soldiers return from the battlefields of the First World War; in Congress they debate Prohibition; the police win an increase in wages frozen at the level of thirteen years ago; anarchists blow up bombs; young Edgar Hoover is forming plans for what will soon become the FBI. And Patrolman Danny Coughlin, the son of the captain of the Boston police, dreams of a golden detective’s badge and unsuccessfully tries to heal a heart broken by a tempestuous romance with Nora O’Shea—a maid in his father’s house, a woman whose past holds many mysteries…