How do you save yourself when you're the person you trust least of all? Xavier "Scarecrow" Wallace is a biracial Black MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, who is facing the comeback fight of his life. He is also losing his battle with pugilistic dementia - a struggle he can no longer deny. In the nursing home of his father, a white man suffering from end-stage Alzheimer's, Xavier witnesses shocking episodes that expose ugly truths about his past and his family. And as the big fight draws near, a sparring session with a younger competitor goes horribly wrong, leaving Xavier faced with a dangerous dilemma: throw his match or suffer the deadly consequences. After the Lights Go Out is a propulsive exploration of biracial identity, the price that athletes pay to entertain, and one man's battle to reconcile his past - even when he can't hold on to his present.

"Thrums with authenticity and the sweat shines on every page" - The Times

"After the Lights Go Out left me breathless. A riveting portrait of masculinity, vulnerability and alienation, it couples propulsive action with an aching tenderness. So exquisite is the result, I would go as far as to say that John Vercher could well be the next Great American Novelist." - author of Next of Kin

"Shrewd and explosive" - New York Times

"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." - author of The Last Policeman and Underground Airlines

"Vercher expertly captures the brashness and discipline of combat sports... delivering all of it in a swiftly paced triumph complete with a surprising one-two punch of a conclusion. This is simply brilliant" - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Vercher has so much to say - about sport, about fighting, about family and society and loneliness and violence, about race and the absolute state of America - and he says it all so well within the confines of fiction, it's simply breathtaking. Vercher is a superb writer and this is a superb novel." - Meath Chronicle

"Brilliant, bleak slice of American noir... Moving, enlightening and memorable" - Mail on Sunday

"Intense, brutal, compassionate and moving, this foray into a savage form of sport and the scars of racial identity is a harrowing tale, which no concessions or sentimentality, carving its way through desolate lives with the accuracy of a scalpel and will linger in the mind long after." - Crimetime