‘Devil is Fine’ author event set Aug. 3

Browseabout Books will host John Vercher, author of "Devil is Fine,” for a signing event from 1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 3, in Rehoboth Beach.

The novel explores 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, the 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 south of his home intending to sell 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.