Mario Alvarado’s New Novel Draws on His Own Path from Boxing to College to Faith

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

Mario Alvarado has published a new novel, "Walking Through the Valleys of the Shadows of Death," a work of fiction set in inner-city Los Angeles that follows a boy navigating poverty, gang violence and a system the book portrays as stacked against him. The 164-page paperback came out in September through Hawes & Jenkins and is available now in bookstores and through major online retailers.

The novel draws on Alvarado’s own background. He grew up in East and South-East Los Angeles, where, according to the announcement, boxing was less a sport than a means of survival. He trained in the sport for sixteen years, starting at age thirteen, before a conversation at his high school’s career office redirected him toward college. The announcement describes him as the first in his family to attend one. A spiritual awakening at nineteen, which he credits with helping him push past the obstacles in front of him, became the basis for the book’s central arc.

In the novel, the protagonist initially gives in to the future he believes has been written for him, then works through a period the publisher describes as spiritual rebirth. With the support of a group called the Rebels and a Christian woman named Kathy, he returns to boxing, not for his own sake alone but, per the announcement, to give the younger kids who remind him of himself something to hope for. exploring themes of faith restored, community forged through shared struggle, and the power of refusing predetermined failure.

"This book emerges from my belief that every human journey deserves to be told," Alvarado said in the announcement. "I wanted to show young people that even when society writes your ending, you have the power to rewrite it, and that faith, community, and courage can transform valleys into mountaintops."

The title echoes a 2005 book by a different author, Dr. Robert E. Kasey, though the two appear to be unrelated works. For Studio CarryOnHarry, the more interesting story here isn’t the book alone but the life behind it — a sixteen-year boxing career and a first-in-family college path that reads like material for more than one book.

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