Bryan Washington – författare

Finalist for the National Book Award for FictionWinner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction"e;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."e; -The Washington PostOne of Time's Must-Read Books of 2025 and Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction of 2025One of The Washington Post's Best Fiction Books of the YearNamed 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 & CountryA life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington. 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. 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 "e;home"e; really is-and whether they can even find it in one another. 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.

Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.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.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 neighborhoods 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.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 PostThe 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. From the bestselling, award-winning author Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about how those know us longest—even when they hurt us most—can also set the benchmark for love.

Tender and poignant, Washingtons latest hits the spot. PEOPLE Magazine From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about two young men, once best friends, whose lives collide again after a loss.Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said - and left unsaid - to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.

A young college professor becomes the source of gossip among a group of eccentric townspeople in this entertaining comedy of manners, a new reissue for Union Square & Co.'s Herald Classics line.Originally published in 1919, Bertram Cope's Year is a clever character study following a handsome young academic who has taken a teaching position at a Midwestern university. As Bertram navigates his new environment, he quickly becomes the object of intrigue for both women and men in the ivy-covered college town. However, Bertram's only emotional attachment is to his best friend and housemate, Arthur Lemoyne. After a series of comedic mishaps, including an inadvertent marriage proposal, Bertram realizes that being true to himself is more important than playing the role others ascribe to him.Often regarded as one of the first American gay novels that avoids the common "bury your gays" ending, Bertram Cope's Year is a witty, comedic portrait of one man's journey to live authentically.

· Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2020 ·· One of Barack Obama's "Favourite Books of the Year" ·· A New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2019 ·'A superb book' Max Porter, author of Lanny____________________________________Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.In an apartment block, the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, trying to dodge his brother's fists and resenting his older sister's absence. He's also discovering he likes boys...All around him his friends and neighbours experience the tumult of living in the margins. Their stories - of living, thriving and dying across the city's myriad neighbourhoods - are stitched throughout the boy's life to reveal a young woman caught out in an affair, the fortunes of a rag-tag baseball team and a group of young hustlers, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and the fate of a camera-shy mythical beast. With brilliant and soulful insight into what makes a community, a family and a life, Lot is about love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.

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 KwonIN 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.

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 KwonIN 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.

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly GorgeousBenson 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...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.NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY:SUNDAY TIMES | THE TIMES | DAILY MAIL | THE TELEGRAPH | RADIO 4 | IRISH TIMES

From the bestselling author of Memorial, a novel that will 'break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy.' Rumaan AlamGrowing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world.When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.

From the bestselling author of Memorial, a novel that will 'break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy.' Rumaan AlamGrowing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world.When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.

From the bestselling author of Memorial, a novel that will 'break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy.' Rumaan AlamGrowing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world.When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.

When discussing maritime tragedies, the Titanic dominates global consciousness. Yet, the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in human history occurred in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines in 1987, claiming over 4,300 lives. The sinking of the MV Dona Paz was a masterclass in catastrophic negligence, overcrowding, and the deadly physics of petroleum fires on the open ocean. The passenger ferry, heavily overloaded with holiday travelers sleeping in every available corridor, collided in the pitch-black night with the MT Vector, a small oil tanker carrying over a million liters of gasoline and petroleum products. The impact instantly ignited the tanker's cargo. A massive explosion covered the surrounding ocean in burning fuel, leaving the doomed passengers of the Dona Paz with a horrific choice: burn on the sinking deck or jump into a sea of liquid fire. This historical investigation deconstructs the absolute failure of maritime logistics. You will study the lack of functional radios, the complete absence of life jackets, and the corrupt shipping regulations that allowed thousands of undocumented passengers onto a vessel built for a fraction of that number. Witness the terrifying consequences of maritime corruption. Uncover the grim mechanics of a blazing ocean and the systemic regulatory failures that doomed thousands.

Hauska ja syvällinen perhedraama on empatian mestarikurssi.Texasilaiset Mike ja Ben ovat eron partaalla, kun Mike joutuu äkisti matkustamaan Tokioon. Miken isä hylkäsi perheensä vuosia sitten, mutta on nyt menehtymässä syöpään, ja Mike haluaa tavata hänet vielä kerran. Samaan aikaan Miken persoonallinen äiti yllättää matkustamalla Benin vaivoiksi Texasiin... Ihmisiä suhteensa risteyskohdissa ja rakkauden rajoilla kuvaava romaani kerrotaan vuorotellen Miken ja Benin näkökulmasta. Kodin etsimistä, seksuaalisuutta ja valittuja perheitä lämmöllä tarkasteleva romaani itkettää mutta ei masenna vaan koukuttaa ja pakottaa ahmimaan eteenpäin.

Hauska ja syvällinen perhedraama on empatian mestarikurssi.Texasilaiset Mike ja Ben ovat eron partaalla, kun Mike joutuu äkisti matkustamaan Tokioon. Miken isä hylkäsi perheensä vuosia sitten, mutta on nyt menehtymässä syöpään, ja Mike haluaa tavata hänet vielä kerran. Samaan aikaan Miken persoonallinen äiti yllättää matkustamalla Benin vaivoiksi Texasiin... Ihmisiä suhteensa risteyskohdissa ja rakkauden rajoilla kuvaava romaani kerrotaan vuorotellen Miken ja Benin näkökulmasta. Kodin etsimistä, seksuaalisuutta ja valittuja perheitä lämmöllä tarkasteleva romaani itkettää mutta ei masenna vaan koukuttaa ja pakottaa ahmimaan eteenpäin.