Palaver A Novel
Palaver A Novel by Bryan Washington, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on November 4, 2025, is a 336-page exploration of family dynamics and personal growth. The narrative follows a son living in Tokyo, where he works as an English tutor and navigates complex relationships, including a romantic involvement with a married man. Estranged from his mother in Houston, their lives intersect unexpectedly when she arrives unannounced after a decade apart, prompting a journey of reconciliation and understanding.
Readers will find a nuanced portrayal of family life as the mother and son confront their pasts and attempt to bridge the emotional distance between them. The story unfolds through their interactions, revealing layers of love, forgiveness, and the search for belonging. Set against the backdrop of diverse locations including Houston, Jamaica, and Japan, Palaver delves into themes of identity and connection, all while maintaining a tone of understated humor and warmth.
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Long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction
Named a Most Anticipated Book by New York, Time, the Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, TIME, Bustle, and Town & Country
A 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 “home” 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.
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