Ballard Redoubt is a novel about neighborhood, friendship and love. Three ex-fishermen navigate the moralities of life on shore in mid-nineties Seattle. One young man is drawn away from his family’s fishing business by the lures of the city. Another, a shop steward in a Teamster strike, grapples with duties to family, coworkers and even to his boss. And the third, a towboat captain, is at once the defender of tradition and the embodiment of chaos itself. Fast and readable, it will leave you smelling of diesel and tasting of saltwater. "Every Norwegian-American should read this book." Damon Franke, University of Southern Mississippi Ballard Redoubt is a psychological and sociological study skillfully woven through a technical short-course of commercial fishing. The psychology and sociology is of blue-collar fishermen living split lives between land and sea. The story explores their companionships, their struggles, and their loves. The landsman reader will learn a lot about boats and the fishing life in this entertaining novel, but any reader will come away with a better understanding of men in any profession who struggle in a world of "them" and "us," who want something better for themselves but are constrained by the habits and values of their culture. The writer, John Hamilton, helps the reader come away with the gift of all good reading, an entertaining story that leads to a better understanding of the world and the people in it. ~David Donovan author of Once a Warrior King An inviting tale of gritty, authentic characters navigating a changing world. ­- Kirkus Reviews John Hamilton's book gets to the gist of work and masculinity in mid-1990s Seattle and how it shapes the lives of the men who set the nets and drive the trucks. Hamilton puts the reader right there in the holds and cabins of the trawlers, tugs, and trucks his "dirty hands, clean money crew" make their lives in. Pull on your boots and warm up your engine—you're going to be shipping out with these guys, and you won't be the same when you get back to shore. —Corwin Ericson, author of Swell and Checked Out OK A New Orleans based novelist, John Hamilton was born and raised in the industrial mid-west. He graduated from Michigan State with a Humanities degree focused on history, philosophy and religion. He lived in Seattle for twenty-five years working in trucking, commercial fishing, and construction. As a US Navy Seabee he served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Ballard Redoubt is Hamilton's second novel.