Win one of several prizes: Gouster Girl by David E. Gumpert

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. David E. Gumpert will be awarding a $25 gift card to Garrett Popcorn, then a Water bottle with Chicago flag for a second winner, and a Mug with Chicago flag for a third winner, all randomly drawn via rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Gouster Girl is the coming of age, risky affair between Valerie Davis a cute black girl from the South Side of Chicago and nerdy white Jeffrey Stark.

While the two are somewhat smitten they are late to realize that falling in love on Chicago’s South Side in 1963 is a highly risky business for an interracial couple.

Opportunities arise for both of them to help one another out of tough fixes—he saves her from attack at an all-white amusement park and she saves him from injury in a racial brawl at their high school. But as their romance becomes more serious, so do the racial dangers. White police target Valerie as a prostitute and black gang members see Jeffrey as trying to sexually exploit a black girl. Seemingly inevitably, the blossoming romance collides head on with the realities of Northern-style racism one hot summer afternoon at one of Chicago’s most beautiful Lake Michigan beaches, when a racial protest turns ugly, confronting the couple with terrible choices.

Enjoy an Exclusive Excerpt

How do you tell a cop you want to offer him a bribe? Having a twenty dollar bill attached to the license saved having to come up with any preamble. Everything was right on the table, including the actual payment.

I rapidly developed a plan in my mind. If I could tell from his language or gestures that the cop and his partner wanted money, I would apologize for having screwed up, and ask if there was something I could do to make the whole thing better.

Valerie and I sat for a few minutes in silence after the cop returned to his car. It occurred to me that her presence could complicate the situation, make it something more than a trespassing problem. I didn’t want to create anxiety for her, though I was sure similar thoughts were shooting through her mind. I decided to break the silence. “What are you thinking?”

She responded immediately, in a flat voice. “You know, they’re going to say I’m a prostitute you picked up. They’ll threaten to arrest both of us, unless you pay them enough money.”

“Wow. I sure hope you’re wrong.” I couldn’t have begun to imagine such a horrible turn of events. Then I saw the officer in my rearview mirror walking toward our car. “Here he comes,” I whispered.

I rolled down the window. “You want to step out of the car?” It was phrased as a question, but was really an order. I rolled up the window, opened the door, and stepped out into the mild spring evening.

“Follow me,” said the officer. I walked slowly behind him, toward the sky-blue-and-white police cruiser. For some reason, I noted the words, “Protect and Defend” in black under the Chicago Police logo. He stopped in front of the back door on the driver’s side, and turned toward me. He was about my height, bordering on heavyset, with black greased hair combed back under his visor. I looked for a name on the badge on the left front pocket of his blue shirt, but couldn’t make anything out in the dark. “You want to tell me where you picked the girl up?” he asked matter-of-factly. “Over on 63rd Street?”

“I didn’t pick her up. She’s a friend.” I tried to be matter-of-fact as well, not get emotional.

He ignored me. “So, you have her by the hour? Maybe you want to share her with me and my partner. Then you can go on your way without any problems.”

I was thrown by the fact he wasn’t asking for money, and I couldn’t think of what to say in response. After some moments of agonizing silence, at least for me, I said, “I told you, she’s a friend, from school. We were just over in Hyde Park with some friends.”

Once again, no acknowledgment of my explanation, no follow-up, like inquiring into where we had been in Hyde Park. For what sort of event.

“You know, this could get serious. The girl could be charged with soliciting for prostitution. If she’s under sixteen, you could be charged with statutory rape. And if you keep saying I’m lying, there could also be a charge of resisting arrest.”

I could feel panic spreading through my body. My legs were shaking. This situation was deteriorating beyond anything I could have imagined.

About the Author:

David E. Gumpert grew up on the South Side of Chicago, in South Shore and Hyde Park. In the years since graduating from the University of Chicago, he has attended Columbia Journalism School and worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and an editor for the Harvard Business Review and Inc. magazine. He has also authored ten nonfiction books on a variety of subjects—from entrepreneurship and small business management to food politics. His most prominent titles include How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan (from Inc. Publishing); How to Really Start Your Own Business (Inc. Publishing); Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Food Rights (Chelsea Green Publishing), and The Raw Milk Answer Book (Lauson Publishing).

He spent ten years in the 1990s and early 2000s researching his family's history during the Holocaust. The result was a book co-authored with his deceased aunt Inge Belier: Inge: A Girl’s Journey Through Nazi Europe (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing).

He spent much of the last half-dozen years going back to his own roots in Chicago to research and write the historical novel, Gouster Girl. While some of it stems from his own experiences growing up in South Shore and Hyde Park, he also conducted significant additional research to complete the book in late 2019.

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