After the Fire

After the Fire is a tour de force on love in a place and time that made love all but impossible. Jerry Izenberg takes us onto the mean streets of riot-scarred Newark. We meet heroes and fools, scheming politicians, Sinatra, Mafia bosses, and a beautiful Juliet with her All-American Romeo. More than once, Izenberg's story will leave you breathless. --Dave Kindred, author of Sound and Fury, a dual biography of Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell Jerry Izenberg over many years has maintained a position as one of America's finest sports columnists. It comes as a welcome surprise, indeed, that, in After the Fire, he establishes himself as a very fine novelist. The taut drama of a bi-racial love affair and the machinations of ward politics and mob influence in Newark in the turbulent '60s is riveting from beginning to end or, in another context, from the first pitch to the final out. --Ira Berkow, Pulitzer Prize winner I became Champ because I looked out for sneaky punches; This novel by Jerry Izenberg both KOd and fascinated me because I didn't see such beauty and intrigue coming straight at me. Hold on to your seat and read. --George Foreman, two-time Heavyweight Champion of the World I am a native of northern New Jersey and vividly recall the year 1967 when Newark was burning and multiple factions of both good and bad people were pitted against one another. . . . The fear was real. Jerry Izenberg, a Newark native himself, does a great job recounting these troubled times. --Bill Parcells, Jersey bred and twice a Super Bowl champion