Tom Grogan

In 1890s America, Tom Grogan does what no woman is supposed to do: she dresses as a man to work the docks and construction sites, hauling cargo and building sea-walls alongside crews who never suspect they're laboring beside a woman. When she's on the job, she's one of the hardest workers on the site, strong enough to outwork the toughest stevedore, bold enough to face down union bosses and contractors. But she's also a mother, and her children are the secret that could destroy everything if discovered. The bestselling American novel of 1896, adapted the same year into a play that toured the country, Tom Grogan remains a vivid, gritty portrait of late-Victorian labor life and the extraordinary woman who refused to be crushed by a world that offered her no place.