Books › The Immigrants
The Immigrants
544 pages
A sweeping, dramatic epic of ambition, forbidden love, and the relentless pursuit of the American Dream in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being swept up in the relentless, churning energy of a booming turn-of-the-century metropolis. It is a grand, old-fashioned historical saga that trades quiet introspection for sweeping momentum, pulling you through the grit of survival into the gilded, complicated halls of high society. The narrative is brisk and deeply earnest, wrapping you in a turbulent atmosphere of raw ambition, class friction, and passionate, messy romance. The prose is straightforward and highly readable, designed to keep the pages turning as empires rise and personal lives unravel. It will thoroughly delight fans of sprawling, multi-generational epics who crave big emotions, high stakes, and the intoxicating, often destructive allure of the American Dream.
- Mood
- turbulent
- grandiose
- passionate
- nostalgic
- Tone
- earnest
- sweeping
- dramatic
- ambitious
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the American Dream · class mobility · the price of ambition · forbidden love · cultural assimilation
- The writing
- Accessible, sweeping, and narrative-driven, focusing on momentum and character action rather than lyrical introspection.
- The arc
- Moves from gritty, desperate survival to soaring triumph, ultimately settling into the complicated, messy realities of wealth and forbidden desire.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love sprawling, multi-generational historical epics filled with ambition, romance, and dramatic societal shifts.
Content notes
- infidelity
- natural disasters
- class prejudice
- xenophobia
About the book
In this sweeping journey of love and fortune, master storyteller Howard Fast recounts the family saga of roughneck immigrants determined to make their way in America at the turn of the century.
Quick to ascend from the tragic depths of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Dan Lavette becomes the head of a powerful shipping empire and establishes himself among the city's cultural elite. But when he finds himself caught in a loveless marriage to the daughter of San Francisco's richest family, a scandalous love affair threatens to destroy the empire Dan has built for himself.
The first novel of a compelling family saga, The Immigrants is fast-paced, emotional historical fiction that captures the wide range of relationships across Immigrant America during the tumultuous defining events of the early twentieth century.
Description from Open Library.
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