The California Immigrant

The California Immigrant is an enthralling historical fiction novel chronicling the events of World War II as experienced in one American small town.

Seeking a better life, young Martin Petrovich immigrates from Yugoslavia to San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century. In just two years, he is on the verge of achieving his American Dream when disaster strikes, forcing him to flee and start over again.

Martin rebuilds his life in a small farming community set on the Monterey Bay, populated with characters as ethnically diverse as Croatians, Mexicans, and Japanese. But unlike Yugoslavia which had bitter ethnic divides, farming brings the people together in a spirit of cooperation and friendships form.

When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor everything changes. Martin once again finds himself in a place where racial hatred in all its ugly guises, runs amok.

As the government turns the town’s airport into a naval facility, conscripts his sons, and begins moving Japanese to internment camps, Martin is forced to make a decision. Should he help a Japanese friend and risk the backlash of his neighbors? Or should he take the safer path of least resistance? Whatever the decision, it will lead to his destiny and forever shape his American Dream.