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    After the Lights Go Out
    After the Lights Go Out
    After the Lights Go Out
    Audiobook7 hours

    After the Lights Go Out

    Written by John Vercher

    Narrated by Sean Crisden

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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?

    Editor's Note

    Inside the ring and out…

    After a long suspension from the ring, MMA fighter Xavier Wallace’s comeback is finally in sight. He trains for the upcoming fight while balancing his ailing father’s care, newly uncovered family secrets, and his own trauma-induced health issues (including boxer’s dementia). Vercher (“Three-Fifths”) skillfully weaves a storyline about perseverance and competition with larger issues of race, identity, and existential dread. In the end, you’ll be rooting for Xavier inside the ring and out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJun 7, 2022
    ISBN9781696607889
    After the Lights Go Out
    Author

    John Vercher

    John Vercher lives in the Philadelphia region with his wife and two sons. He has a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. John serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel University and was the inaugural Wilma Dykeman writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. His debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune and Booklist. It was nominated for the Edgar and Strand Magazine Critics’ Awards for Best First Novel. His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, called “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times, was named a Best Book of Summer 2022 by BookRiot and Publishers Weekly, and named a Booklist Editor’s Choice Best Book of 2022.

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    Reviews for After the Lights Go Out

    4.5/5

    7 ratings3 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title gripping and powerful. The narration is fantastic and the story is amazing. Many readers were lucky enough to hear part of the book in person and were immediately hooked. They couldn't put it down and hated to see it end. Overall, this book is absolutely wonderful.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Gripping powerful tail, well tall. You feel like you’re in the ring with the MMA fighters.
    • 5/5
      I hated to see this book end. What a wonderful story. Powerful!!! The narration was fantastic.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book with a fantastic story. I was lucky enough to hear the wither read part of the book in person at the end of October and right then I knew I needed to hear the whole thing. Absolutely wonderful.