North of the Port - Tapa dura

"These twelve stories are a Polish delight. Bukoski's language hisses with authenticity, and his characters jut into the waters of humanity like giant ore docks into Lake Superior. A great book." - Diane Glancy, author of The Mask Maker "These stories belong in the pantheon of American letters not just because they are models for the American short story, but also because they deal with the presure of ordinary history on the lives of 'DPs' (displaced persons) - Polish immigrants in the mid-twentieth century." - Cynthia Shearer, author of The Wonder Book of the Air "Bukoski uncovers the most intimate religious and sensual longings, revealing with subtle grace and sly humor the hidden secrets of the displaced past that simmer through these multi-generational immigrant struggles and lyrical dreams. A remarkable book about where we come from and why we're here." - Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the Land "Anthony Bukoski understands how people begin in one place and end up in another and in the process try to preserve or renew or reinvent their very sense of self. Especially in this era, when the issue of if or how or why one becomes an American is increasingly important, Bukoski's book is downright essential." - Robert Olen Butler "Anthony Bukoski's characters are funny, devoted, passionate, quarrelsome, hard-working people. These stories will make you want to buy a round for your new friends from Superior, Wisconsin." - Alyson Hagy, author of Snow, Ashes"

As in his earlier works, the dozen stories in Bukoski s fifth collection depict the joys and woes of the Polish American immigrant families living either in the East End of Superior, Wisconsin, or in south Louisiana, where some Poles migrated to work the cane fields. Bukoski s lower middle-class families are sustained by their neighborhood (now in decline), by the Polish fraternal lodge, by their parochial school training, and, in some cases, by their abiding spiritual faith"