This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies.

Imagine opening your car door one day and being greeted by the stench of rotting groceries,

including raw chicken and vegetables that were left in the back seat overnight in sweltering weather.

That happens in the opening pages of the novel by our guest, John Virtua.

The main character in Virtua's book is a veteran mixed martial arts fighter,

and the groceries rotted in the car because the head trauma Xavier Wallace had suffered

over the years left him unable to remember he'd bought them.

Virtua's novel, after the lights go out, is now out in paperback.

It's about the fight game, family, the ravages of dementia, and about race.

Xavier is the son of a black mother who'd left the family when he was young,

and a white father who's now struggling with Alzheimer's.

As the story unfolds, he learns more about his family's past as he struggles to resurrect his fighting career.

Like his main character, John Virtua is the son of mixed race parents,

and he trained in mixed martial arts as a young man, though he never fought professionally.

John Virtua has been selected as the University of North Carolina Asheville's Will Medicman writer

in residence for 2023, and he teaches writing and programs at Randolph College,

Drexel University, and Chatham University.

He's the author of a previous novel titled Three Fifths.

I spoke to Virtua last year when after the lights go out, was released in hardback.

John Virtua, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thanks so much for having me, Dave.

I'd like us to begin with a reading.

...