Description

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

‘Such a joy’ Ocean Vuong
‘It’ll break and remake your heart’ Andrew Sean Greer
‘You want this gorgeous book’ RO Kwon

IN TOKYO, the son works as an English tutor, drinking his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He’s entangled with a married man, too. But while he has built a chosen family in Japan, he is estranged from his family in America, particularly his mother, whose preference for the son’s troubled homophobic brother pushed him to leave home. Then, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, ten years since they’ve last seen each other, the mother arrives uninvited on his doorstep.

Separated only by the son’s cat, the two of them clash. The mother, wrestling with memories of her youth in Jamaica and her own complicated brother, works to atone for her missteps. The son initially struggles to forgive, but as they share meals, conversations and an eventful trip to one of the oldest cities in Japan, both mother and son start to reckon with the meaning of ‘home’ – and whether, perhaps, they can find it in each other.

Publisher Review

Palaver is the pinnacle of what has become Washington’s classic approach to writing: care, humor, tenderness, and an embrace of human beings at their most vulnerable, lovely, and wounded. It’s such a joy to see the summation of his generosity of thinking and living actualized in the sentence. Fiction – no – life is better because Bryan Washington is writing * Ocean Vuong * Gripping, beautiful, honest, unlike anything else on the bookshelf. A great work by one of America’s greatest young writers, Palaver will break and remake your heart. A book I will sending to everyone I know * Andrew Sean Greer * Palaver has my heart. The days have felt less heavy while I’ve gotten to spend time in the novel’s capacious world and I can already tell I’ll want to reread soon. Bryan Washington is a genius and you want this gorgeous book * R.O Kwon * Palaver is an intimate, ambulatory, and deeply human reflection on family and home – on what we choose and what’s already chosen for us. It’s about our flawed attempts at loving and being loved, forgiving and being forgiven. It’s the rare novel that manages to be funny and sad and honest all at once – awake to the mundane miracles of our lives. Bryan Washington is one of a kind * Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans * A quiet knockout of a novel, a book like a yearning hand stretched out to the wide world… A book that knows all family stories are also love stories, complete with the heartbreak, loss and betrayal – but also the luminous hope of repair, recovery, and reconciliation * Elaine Castillo, author of Moderation * Few writers write about tenderness as Bryan Washington does – unadorned tenderness that is full of heart and humor but steers clear from familiar sentimentalities and convenient solutions. With its deep understanding of human relationships, Palaver is a rare novel that offers companionship to solitary readers and lonely souls * Yiyun Li, author of Wednesday’s Child * Washington is a technically dazzling writer * Alan Hollinghurst * Bryan Washington speaks for people who have too long been silenced, and the voice he has found for them is defiant, compassionate, decent and profoundly human * Damon Galgut *