Goliath at Sunset

Fresh from the projects and a stint in Vietnam, Mike Shea hires into a sprawling shipyard south of the city at the height of Boston's racial clashes. When he encounters a ruthless company and a union leadership whose militancy has faded with the years, Shea reaches across the yard's explosive color line to join and then lead a movement for justice and respect.

As contracts for marine tankers are cancelled, management ratchets down on the workforce, igniting chaos and fear throughout the yard. Then a dangerously damaged tanker limps into the yard, triggering hope for new work but forcing Shea and the welders to choose between risking their lives and losing their jobs.

Brandow's nine years working as a shipyard welder and union activist inspired Goliath At Sunset, a novel of the American working class.

"Jon Brandow hits a home-run with his compelling and absorbing tale of the struggle for workers' rights in a Massachusetts shipyard. The book is simply marvelous and so completely absorbing I did not want to even pause in reading it." Bill Fletcher, Jr., author of The Man Who Changed Colors and The Man Who Fell From the Sky

"Brandow weaves a telling text, capturing diverse voices, youthful energy, and a shipyard's vocabulary and slang...Even if the reader is not a welder, the workplace's cadence and challenges, along with the pride in craft, shines through... For an authentic working-class novel, one can't go wrong with Goliath at Sunset." Mike Matejka, Power at Work