A Trial in Summer

Lorie Bronson, an idealistic college freshman, arrives in San Francisco in the summer of 1939 with her father, who is the judge in the deportation trial of a longshoreman and labor leader. San Francisco is full of contrasts from the luxuries of Nob Hill, where the family is staying, to the dangerous docks that Lorie explores. Lorie misses her dead mother and resents her father’s new wife. A passionate photographer, Lorie disobeys her father and goes down to the docks to photograph longshoreman at work and in strikes. She meets Dave Rafferty, who says he is a longshoreman, and Lorie talks to him about the trial. But Dave turns out to be a company spy, who steals her camera and endangers both the trial and her father’s career. In surviving her own trial during the long summer, Lorie learns about labor and social justice and achieves a more mature relationship with her father and a clearer sense of herself.

Pub date: April 11, 2010, 240 pages, $14.95, ISBN: 978-1-56474-506-4

Ordering Information

A Trial in Summer is available at good bookstores everywhere. It can also be ordered through John Daniel & Co. by calling 800-662-8351.