Dombrowski's Line

About the Book

Pilzno, Poland - 1939: Walter Dombrowski, a cabinet maker,  witnesses the destruction of his village by the Nazi war machine. His beloved grandfather, Josef Thaddeus Dombrowski, dies before his eyes. After his wife, Anna, escapes to Switzerland, Walter is captured and sent to a Nazi work camp in Marburg, Germany. In Walter's eyes, it is the end of the world.    

Niagara Falls, N.Y. - 1965: Walter and Anna Dombrowski have survived the horrors of WW II and relocated to America. They

live next door to another immigrant; Salvatore Piazza and his wife, Sofia. Walter and Salvatore work as maintenance craftsmen for the Inter-Canadian Transit Corp,(ITC), where Walter is the union president and Salvatore is a steward. Driven by strong ideals, Walter will not take a backward step in fighting for the union; he is in constant conflict with his supervisor, Phil Taylor.

Walter and Salvatore are assigned to maintenance tasks on Bridge Number 7, an ancient wooden railroad bridge spanning the lower Niagara gorge between United States and Canada. Through a comedy of errors, Walter and Salvatore become trapped on the bridge; Immigration officials of Canada and U.S.A., each stationed at their respective ends of the bridge, believe the pair are trying to sneak into their respective countries. Both countries are unyielding; Canada blames the U.S.A. for allowing the pair to sneak past their gates, and U.S.A blames the Canadians. A deadlock.

When Immigration officers try to force Walter and Salvatore from the bridge, they retreat to the center of the bridge. There is a black line painted across the center of the bridge, it is four-feet wide and represents the border between the two countries. With hostile officials standing on both sides, Walter and Salvatore are trapped! In desperation, Walter claims that neither side can drive him from the black line, because neither country has full ownership of the border between two countries. Walter claims the line and names it `Dombrowski's Line'.

    Uncertain and confused, officials from both sides refer the problem to higher authority, where it is discovered there is no formal title of ownership for the line. Is it possible Walter has laid legal claim to a strip of land four feet wide and three thousand miles long? What follows is an international circus of bureaucratic folly, stirred and elevated to absurd proportion by inept politicians from both countries.

About the Author

Simon Coe (A.K.A. James Shamblen) holds an advanced degree from West Coast University. Like many authors who were “depression babies”, his career has followed an eclectic path: a Merchant seaman in World War II, soldier, policeman, cook, baker, insurance agent, draftsman, Oriental carpet broker, diamond cutter and Engineer. He has worked on projects sponsored by D.O.D., NASA, USAF and Middle Eastern governments. His novels are drawn from the cultural lore of Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Currently, he lives in Southern California.