Coming in May!
Port City, Eliot Sefrin’s blockbuster historical novel, will be released May 6, 2025. Set in New York City in the heady days after the Allies’ victory in World War II, the novel follows the groundbreaking strike of the Tugboat Workers Union against the cartel of owners of the essential fleets.
Based on real-life events, Port City unfolds in 1946, as New York becomes the latest city to feel the impact of mass strikes sweeping across America in the face of defense factory closures, job shortages, worker frustration, and rampant postwar inflation. Worker unrest was already sweeping across post-war America, and this unprecedented strike crippled the nation’s preeminent city, pitting an upstart labor union against powerful corporate interests arrayed against him. The strike also tests the bond between two brothers—one a rebellious, visionary union leader, the other a war-weary ex-G.I. struggling to reboot his life.
Feisty, streetwise Benny Logan has risen in the union ranks in a break from the corrupt, old-guard leaders who have victimized the city’s tugboat workers for decades. Seeking allies in his crusade to reform the labor union, Benny recruits his younger brother Jack, newly returned from the war, as a deckhand on the flagship of tugboat magnate Henry McFarland, the unscrupulous leader of a tugboat owners’ coalition working in concert with city officials, mob associates, and others to preserve a moneymaking status quo. McFarland will stop at nothing to crush the union and protect the interests of the city’s corporate elite, while Benny, equally stubborn and determined.
As powerful forces collide, Benny’s beloved kid brother Jack plays an unexpected role in finding a new way forward for labor-management relations, even as he and his wife, a pregnant British war bride, attempt to recover from the emotional trauma of the war.
What reviewers say . . .
From Diane Donovan (Donovan’s Boookshelf) Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review:
Vivid descriptions explore what goes on beneath the surface of many local issues and events, bringing New York City and its interests to life in a way that will prove absolutely compelling, even to readers with little prior familiarity with New York’s history. . . It’s a supercharged saga of transformation that will entertain while immersing readers in situations that reflect how people grow—sometimes, against all odds.
From Sarah Harkness for The Book Commentary online
FIVE STARS
Port City by Eliot Sefrin plunges readers into post-World War II New York, where a ferocious tugboat workers’ strike becomes a battleground of labor versus corporate interests. The backdrop of a jubilant yet tumultuous America teeters between promise and upheaval as workers, long subjugated to wage freezes and corruption, rise against their beleaguered leadership. Key characters, including ambitious tugboat owner Henry McFarland, fiery union leader Benny Logan, and conflicted ex-GI Jack Logan, intertwine their fates in a gripping tale highlighting the struggle for justice, dignity, and economic survival.
. . . The setting of New York Harbor, a hub of economic activity and immigration, is a mesmerizing backdrop and character in the story. The tugboats, lifelines of the bustling city, mirror the workers’ struggles, a brilliant portrait of a fragile balance between progress and the brink of chaos. The author skillfully employs vivid imagery to evoke the harsh winter landscape against the social fractures that become apparent under the strike.
. . . Sefrin crafts a narrative that is both a historical recounting and a captivating commentary on the complex nature of labor relations, making Port City a must-read for anyone interested in the struggle for social justice.