4:05: John Vercher's Three-Fifths

NovelClass

In this special episode of NovelClass, Dave Pezza is joined by author and co-creator of the Writer’s Bone podcast, Daniel Ford. Ford returns to the show to discuss John Vercher’s debut novel, Three-Fifths.

Published on September 10, 2019 by Agora Books, Three-Fifths portrays the struggles of Bobby Saraceno, a biracial 20-something man living in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s. As Bobby and his recovering alcoholic mother Isabel struggle to make ends meet waiting tables, Aaron, Bobby’s best friend from high school, returns from prison. But Aaron has changed and has joined the white supremacist movement while incarcerated, forcing Bobby to come to terms with his own concealed blackness.

In his debut novel, Vercher masterfully brings his readers back to the mid-1990s, amongst the O.J. Simpson trial, the King Riots, and yet another period in American history dominated by race.