Devil Is Fine: A Novel
About this audiobook
This program is read by award-winning narrator Dion Graham.
"Devil Is Fine is self-deprecatingly tender, often bracingly hilarious, and at its heart is a runaway train through the haunted house of us. And I loved it. Don't miss it." —Dion Graham
"Graham’s rich, inviting, sigh-inducing voice magically weaves another irresistible aural web...Graham is wondrous throughout, seamlessly assuming and discarding characterizations with accuracy and aplomb, from dubious allies to empathic strangers and pretentious experts. His impressive range effortlessly melds dark humor, chaotic surrealism, and historic horror into another rewardingly mesmerizing performance." —Booklist (Starred Review)
From acclaimed novelist John Vercher, a profoundly moving novel of what it means to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile the past
Reeling from the sudden death of his teenage son, our narrator receives a letter from an attorney: he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of immediately selling the land. But upon inspection, what lies beneath the dirt is much more than he can process in the throes of grief. As a biracial Black man struggling with the many facets of his identity, he’s now the owner of a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother’s side of the family.
Vercher deftly blurs the lines between real and imagined, past and present, tragedy and humor, and fathers and sons in this story of discovery—and a fight for reclamation—of a painful past. With the wit of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and the nuance of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, Devil Is Fine is a darkly funny and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.
About the author
John Vercher lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He has a BA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in creative writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. John was an assistant teaching professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at Drexel University, was the inaugural Wilma Dykeman writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and is the 2024–2025 artist-in-residence at Monmouth University. 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 Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut 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 Book Riot and Publishers Weekly and a Booklist Editors’ Choice book of 2022. His most recent novel, Devil Is Fine, was named one of Time’s Must-Read Books of 2024 and has been longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize.
