After the success of Prison Ramen, author Gustavo Goose Alvarez, returns with an even more enduring tale. Goose’s new book, The Pawn, represents only the latest in a rich and ongoing series of tales that he has to share. In it, he tells a story that was in many ways inspired by real struggles and sorrows, compromises and triumphs. Like a Westside Dostoyevsky, Alvarez translates some of his own troubling experiences and observations to the page through the lens of fiction, but the author’s personal voice is never lost in the process. -Dr. Michael Gibson-Light.