This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies and for Terry Gross.

Imagine opening your car door one morning and being greeted by the stench of 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 new novel by our guest, John Virtua.

The main character of his book is a veteran mixed martial arts fighter,

and the groceries rotted in the car because the beatings and head trauma,

Xavier Wallace had suffered over the years, left him unable to remember he'd bought them.

Virtua's novel is 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.

Today we're re-broadcasting the interview I recorded with Virtua in June,

because it was preempted on many stations then by coverage of the January 6th hearings.

Virtua is a contributing writer for Cognacenti, WBUR's online idea and opinion site,

and NPR has featured his essays on race, identity, and parenting. He's the author of a previous novel,

titled Three Fifths. His latest novel is After the Lights Go Out.

John Virtua, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thanks so much for having me, Dave.

I'd like us to begin with a reading. This is from the very beginning of the book.

When we're learning about this character, Xavier Wallace, you want to just pick this up for us?

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