Socrates Fortlow

Departing from his critically acclaimed Easy Rawlins mysteries, best-selling author Walter Mosley introduces Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con struggling to find his place in the world after 27 years in jail.

Living in an abandoned apartment building in South-Central L.A., Socrates is one step away from the streets. He bags groceries at the supermarket, collects bottles and cans to recycle for pennies, and feels himself slipping toward invisibility - that is, until he meets 11-year-old Darryl, whose already committed murder and is perilously close to slipping into a life filled with only violence and bloodshed. Socrates' determination to fight for and save Darryl lights his own pathway to self-forgiveness.

Lyrically written and deeply moving Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned provides an unflinching look into the hopelessness of poverty-stricken inner city life and into the life of one man who refuses to succumb to the despair around him. Narrator Peter Francis James perfectly captures Socrates' struggle to be a better man.