New York Times Bestseller: In early 1900s Pennsylvania, the
ambitious son of Irish immigrants pursues the American Dream in the face
of injustice and intolerance.
Fourteen-year-old Jason Aloysius Garrity is now of age to work full-time
in a Pennsylvania coal factory, earning four dollars a week. His family
left their hardscrabble life in Ireland to create a better one in
America. But their shanty-like home on a street filled with outhouses,
horse manure, and the ever-present odor of noxious gas is a hell all its
own. Yet Jason possesses the passion and principles that will lift him
out of the abject poverty surrounding his widowed mother, fanatically
religious younger brother, and manipulative crippled sister.
With World War I looming on the horizon, Jason begins to make his way in
Belleville's burgeoning business world. He marries beautiful, wealthy
Patricia Mulligan, unaware that their union is built on a deception that
will have far-reaching consequences not only in his life but in the
lives of his three children.
Filled with unforgettable characters, this masterful retelling of the
Book of Job depicts one man's will to succeed amidst the slings and
arrows of fortune.