Eliot Sefrin

The Death of Dahlgren Place: a Brooklyn Tale Eliot Sefrin

When the paperboy swings his shiny Schwinn bicycle onto Dahlgren Place in Brooklyn, New York, and delivers the weekly Bay Ridge Spectator, thirteen-year-old Nathan Wolf has no idea that his life is about to change forever. It is 1959-a time of optimism and innocence, when Nathan's days are normally filled with playful adventures in Brooklyn's playgrounds and streets. But this day is different. The Spectator delivers the crushing news that the city plans to build a bridge and expressway through the heart of Nathan's beloved, close-knit neighborhood. Within hours, Bay Ridge is in an uproar, as desperate, uncertain residents undertake a bitter, hard-fought campaign to halt mass eviction and preserve their way of life. As Bay Ridge undergoes a metamorphosis, readers witness both the trauma and triumph inspired by the building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge-symbolic of the rise of modern-day New York and the unsettling close to Brooklyn's fabled postwar 'Golden Era.'A moving story of resiliency and hope, based on true events, The Death of Dahlgren Place depicts how an unwelcome end to childhood sparks an exciting journey of self-discovery, as the death of his street unexpectedly gives birth to a young boy's dream.