Family Meal

A superb book' Max Porter, author of Lanny<BR><BR>____________________________________<BR><BR>Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.<BR><BR>In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.<BR><BR>This boy and his family experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts, and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living and thriving and dying across Houston's myriad neighbourhoods are woven throughout to reveal a young woman's affair detonating across an apartment complex, a rag-tag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and a reluctant chupacabra.<BR><BR>Bryan Washington's brilliant, viscerally drawn world leaps off the page with energy, wit, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot is about love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.

"Achingly and beautifully etched. . . Washington is a generous and gentle writer, with a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while simultaneously offering his characters—and readers—an expansive space for self-forgiveness, hope, and nourishment."—The Washington Post<BR><BR>An irresistible, intimate novel about how those know us longest—even when they hurt us most—can also set the benchmark for love, from the National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of Memorial and Lot<BR><BR>The ghost of Kai, the love of Cam's life, won't leave Cam alone. He follows Cam from LA back home to Houston, his visits wild, tender, and unpredictable. But Cam has changed, and when he reenters the orbit of his childhood best friend TJ and his family's bakery, neither Cam nor TJ is sure how to navigate their charged estrangement. Searching for a way past all the wounds and secrets—a way to be okay together, maybe for the first time— the pair find hope and sustenance from the most unlikely source. <BR><BR>

This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy' <BR>Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous<BR><BR>'Brilliantly details the smallest moments that mean the absolute most, the heartbreakingly human limitations of how we love one another' Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age<BR><BR>Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted...<BR><BR>Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love.<BR><BR>NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY:<BR><BR>SUNDAY TIMES | THE TIMES | DAILY MAIL | THE TELEGRAPH | RADIO 4 | IRISH TIMES

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR <BR><BR>A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK <BR><BR>Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, O, the Oprah Magazine, Esquire, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Refinery29, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, and Lit Hub<BR><BR>“A masterpiece.” —NPR <BR> <BR>“No other novel this year captures so gracefully the full palette of America.” —The Washington Post <BR> <BR>“Wryly funny, gently devastating.” —Entertainment Weekly <BR><BR>A funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you're supposed to be, and the limits of love, from the National Book Award finalist<BR><BR>Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson's a Black day care teacher, and they've been together for a few years—good years—but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other.<BR><BR>But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.<BR><BR>Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they've ever known. And just maybe they'll all be okay in the end.

'Such a joy' Ocean Vuong<BR>'It'll break and remake your heart' Andrew Sean Greer<BR>'You want this gorgeous book' RO Kwon<BR><BR>In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor, drinking his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He's entangled in a sexual relationship with a married man, and 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.<BR><BR>Separated only by the son's cat, the two of them bristle against each other immediately. The mother, wrestling with memories of her youth in Jamaica and her own complicated brother, works to reconcile her good intentions with her missteps. The son struggles to forgive. But as life begins to steer them in unexpected directions - the mother to a tentative friendship with a local bistro owner, and the son to cautiously getting to know a new patron of the bar - the two of them begin to see each other more clearly. Sharing meals and conversations and an eventful trip to Nara, both mother and son try the best they can to define where 'home' really is - and whether they can find it even in each other.

Was verbindet uns wirklich, wenn wir uns zu verlieren drohen? Ein brillantes Buch über die Grenzen der Liebe und darüber, wie man sie überwindet.

Nach dem tragischen Verlust der Liebe seines Lebens hadert Cam mit allem, fühlt sich gestrandet und weiß nicht, wohin mit sich - und schottet sich gegen jegliche Hilfe, jegliche Zuneigung ab. Als er in Houston seinem alten Jugendfreund TJ über den Weg läuft, erfährt er, dass dieser immer noch im kleinen Restaurant seiner Eltern arbeitet, als Koch. Und nach und nach gelingt es dem warmherzigen und hartnäckigen TJ, Cam wieder ins Leben zurückzuholen, indem er ihn ins Familiengeschäft einbindet, ihn wieder zum Kochen bringt und ihm einen Weg zeigt, sich mit seiner Vergangenheit zu versöhnen. Wie sagt man so schön: Liebe geht durch den Magen.

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction<BR>Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction<BR><BR>"A heart-wrenchingly honest, often luminescent exploration of how to find and cultivate true connections, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places . . . [Palaver is] an unshakable triumph." -The Washington Post<BR><BR>One of Time's Must-Read Books of 2025 and Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction of 2025<BR>One of The Washington Post's Best Fiction Books of the Year<BR>Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, New York, Time, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, People, Harper's Bazaar, Bustle, and Town & Country<BR><BR>A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington. <BR><BR>In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor and drinks his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He's entangled in a sexual relationship with a married man, and while he has built a chosen family in Japan, he is estranged from his mother in Houston, whose preference for the son's oft-troubled homophobic brother, Chris, pushed him to leave home. Then, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, ten years since they last saw each other, the mother arrives uninvited on his doorstep. <BR><BR>With only the son's cat, Taro, to mediate, the two of them bristle at each other immediately. The mother, wrestling with memories of her youth in Jamaica and her own complicated brother, works to reconcile her good intentions with her missteps. The son struggles to forgive. But as life steers them in unexpected directions-the mother to a tentative friendship with a local bistro owner and the son to a cautious acquaintance with a new patron of the bar-they begin to see each other more clearly. During meals and conversations and an eventful trip to Nara, mother and son try as best they can to determine where "home" really is-and whether they can even find it in one another. <BR><BR>Written with understated humor and an open heart, moving through past and present and across Houston, Jamaica, and Japan, Bryan Washington's Palaver is an intricate story of family, love, and the beauty of a life among others.