After the Lights Go Out

by John Vercher

Narrated by Sean Crisden

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Pub Date Jun 07 2022 | Archive Date May 03 2022

General Fiction (Adult) | Sports

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Description

Xavier "Scarecrow" Wallace, a mixed-race MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, is facing the fight of his life. Xavier can no longer deny he is losing his battle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), or pugilistic dementia. Through the fog of memory loss, migraines, and paranoia, Xavier does his best to stay in shape by training at the Philadelphia gym owned by his cousin-cum-manager, Shot, a retired champion boxer to whom Xavier owes an unpayable debt. Xavier makes ends meet while he waits for the call that will reinstate him after a year-long suspension by teaching youth classes at Shot's gym and by living rent-free in the house of his white father, whom Xavier was forced to commit to a nursing home. The progress of Sam Wallace's end-stage Alzheimer's has revealed his latent racism, and Xavier finally gains insight into why his Black mother left the family years ago. Then Xavier is offered a chance at redemption: a last-minute high-profile comeback fight. If he can get himself back in the game, he'll be able to clear his name and begin to pay off Shot. With his memory in shreds and his life crumbling around him, can Xavier hold on to the focus he needs to survive?

Xavier "Scarecrow" Wallace, a mixed-race MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, is facing the fight of his life. Xavier can no longer deny he is losing his battle with chronic traumatic...

Advance Praise

“Written in deft and visceral prose—Vercher’s trademark—After the Lights Go Out is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I loved every moment of it, even the ones that broke my heart.” —Lauren Wilkinson, author of American Spy

“Vercher gives us a nuanced, troubled protagonist trying to keep his head up in a dark and dangerous world. His novel is troubling, powerful, and ultimately, surprisingly, poignant.” —Ben H. Winters, author of The Last Policeman and Underground Airlines

“John Vercher writes like a fighter, a dancer, an athlete. The prose is nimble and nothing on the page is wasted. His writing knows when to throw a punch, and, in a novel that explores the intersection of race, class, celebrity, and healthcare, John Vercher leaves it all in the ring. Here is a novelist at the height of his power. After the Lights Go Out left my heart black and blue, and I loved every moment of the beating it took.” —Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of When Ghosts Come Home