by Michael Dunn

Anywhere But Schuylkill is the story of Mike Doyle, a teenager living in the coal fields of eastern
Pennsylvania in the 1870s. After a fire kills 110 miners, including Mike’s father, his family must
move in with their alcoholic uncle, who resents having to care for his brother in-law’s “brats.”
It’s the middle of the Long Depression. Children are dying of hunger. The Reading Railroad has
hired Pinkerton spies to infiltrate the miners’ union. And there is a sectarian war between the
Modocs, a Welsh gang that the bosses utilize as their own private gun thugs, and the Kohinoor
Boys, an Irish gang whose members are union activists.
Amidst all this turmoil, Mike must protect his younger siblings from their uncle’s violence and
wrath, while navigating a secret romance with Hannah, daughter of the Kohinoor gang’s jealous
leader. But everything Mike does just worsens his problems, forcing him to question his
assumptions about manhood and courage. Ultimately, he decides his uncle must die and enlists
the Kohinoor Boys to help. And that’s when things go from terrible to catastrophic.

Review coming soon !