The Blast

San Francisco, 1916. The streetsroiling: pitched battles between radical workers and the henchmen of industrialbarons, and between a vibrant, largely Italian immigrant anarchist milieu andthe forces of state and church. All in the looming shadow of Europe's ragingwar, and of a fierce struggle over whether the U.S. should commit its might,and human fodder, to the slaughter in the trenches.

Into this maelstrom arrives KateJameson, a novice envoy from Washington tasked to secretly investigate thetenor of support for war entry among San Francisco's business elite. She's alsohoping to glimpse her wayward daughter, Maggie, whose last message to Kate hadcome from there. And, too, she's seeking the ghost of her husband Jamey, whofifteen years earlier had landed there upon his return, shattered, from hispart in the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.

Arriving back in the city at thesame moment is Baldo Cavanaugh, a Sicilian-Irish son of San Francisco whose militantbeliefs and special skills have led him time and again to the violent extremes ofthe city's turbulent history. And who now must confront the doubts and demons ofhis own character, which he'd sought to escape by fleeing the city three yearsbefore.

This stunning taleexplores how these two seemingly disparate characters become engaged with the city'sand nation's turmoil, and with the complexities of their related pasts inBoston, Dublin, London, Cuba, and the Philippines. A vivid picture of a cityand a moment, the novel brilliantly reveals the explosive admixture of thedeeply personal and the deeply political.