Palaver
Set in Japan, the gorgeous novel that will "break and remake your heart"
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- Vooruitbestelling
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- Verwacht op 1 jan. 2026
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- € 11,99
Beschrijving uitgever
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Washington revisits the Japanese setting of his novel Memorial with a bighearted drama about a 30-something Houston man's reunion with his estranged mother. At the outset, the unnamed protagonist, known only as "the son," gets an unexpected visit from his mother in Tokyo, where he's spent the past 12 years teaching English. She's curious to know more about his life, but they struggle to connect beyond small talk, and the son remains embittered at her failure to support him when he came out as gay many years earlier. Meanwhile, the son grapples with his feelings for the married man he's been seeing and another man he's recently met, who might be a better match. During a sightseeing trip with his mother, the pair finally put it all on the table, but struggle to find resolution: she misses him and wants him to come back to Texas with her, but he insists Japan is his home now, as he's built a tight circle of friends in Tokyo. The situation is rather straightforward, but Washington's nuanced portrait of the gulf between mother and son and their difficulties bridging it offers keen insights into human relationships, showing "how people change through others" as they "try to figure out what works for us." The author's fans will love this.
