Palaver
Set in Japan, the gorgeous novel that will "break and remake your heart"
Published on 1. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-80546-396-2 (ISBN)
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.
'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.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 134 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
355 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80546-396-2 (9781805463962)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Bryan Washington is the author of the story collection Lot and the novels Memorial and Family Meal. A National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree, he is the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize, the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, the Ernest J. Gaines Award, two Lambda Literary Awards, and an O. Henry Prize, and he has been a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence, and the James Tait Black Prize. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times, his writing has also appeared in Granta, The New York Times Magazine, Time, GQ, and Esquire, among many other places. He is based in Tokyo.