'Thrums with authenticity' The Times
'Powerful, bruising and beautiful' Chris Whitaker
A bleak, brilliant slice of American noir' Daily Mail

The latest novel from the CWA-shortlisted author of Three-Fifths - a Sunday Times, Guardian and Financial Times Book of the Year

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IT'S NOT A COMEBACK. IT'S A FIGHT FOR HIS LIFE.

Xavier "Scarecrow" Wallace is a biracial Black MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, who's been given a last-ditch chance to break into the big leagues. He is also losing his battle with pugilistic dementia, a struggle he is desperate to hide.

In the nursing home of his father, a white man suffering from Alzheimer's, Xavier witnesses shocking episodes that expose ugly truths about his family and his past.

As the big fight draws near, Xavier is faced with a dangerous dilemma: throw his match or suffer the deadly consequences.

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FURTHER PRAISE FOR JOHN VERCHER

'John Vercher could well be the next great American novelist' Kia Abdullah

'Shrewd and explosive' New York Times

'Vercher writes with the intensity of championship round' Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

'A stunning, stone-cold knockout' P. J. Vernon, author of Bath Haus

'Think Warrior by way of Fat City' William Boyle, author of Shoot the Moonlight Out

'John Vercher writes like a fighter, a dancer, an athlete' Wiley Cash, author of A Land More Kind than Home

"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