Family Meal

<b>Bryan Washington</b> is a writer from Houston. His fiction and essays have appeared in among other publications the <i>New York Times</i> <i>New York Times Magazine</i> the <i>New Yorker</i> the <i>BBC</i> <i>Vulture</i> and the <i>Paris Review</i>. He's also a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 winner the recipient of an Ernest J. Gaines Award a PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize finalist a National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize finalist the recipient of an O. Henry Award and the winner of the 2020 International Dylan Thomas Prize.<br><br>BryWashing.com / @BryWashing <b>From the bestselling author of <i>Memorial</i> a novel that will 'break your heart twice over with sadness sure but more unexpectedly with joy.' Rumaan Alam</b><br><br>Growing 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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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. <b>Fr</b><b>om the bestselling Dylan Thomas Prize-winning author of <i>Memorial</i> and <i>Lot</i> a novel about two young men who grew up together fell away from each other and then collide again after a crisis...</b> <b>Masterful... Washington lays it all out with the control and artistry of a ballet choreographer</b> Bryan Washington speaks for people who have too long been silenced and the voice he has found for them is <b>defiant compassionate decent and profoundly human</b> <b>A beautiful novel... Sensual sometimes sad ultimately hopeful</b> <b>A sensual immersion in loss grief food and sex. Compelling... Deeply felt... Beautiful </b> <b>Achingly and beautifully etched</b>... Washington has a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while offering his characters - and his readers - space for self-forgiveness hope and nourishment <b>One of the best books I've read this year. Truly masterful</b> <b><i>Family Meal</i> is filled with love-for the sensual pleasure of life the places that we call home the beauty of the people around us. This novel will break your heart twice over with sadness sure but more unexpectedly with joy. It takes a generous writer to show us the world in this way and Bryan Washington is one of our best.</b><br><b></b> <i>Family Meal</i> is everything that Bryan Washington's work has promised so far: <b>a fiercely written by turns heartbreaking terrifying and horny gaze on American masculinity friendship and love</b> always with a clear sense of place and environment. Its take on grief and desire of selfishness and generosity and of the ways in which the Black masc body might be dismantled or caressed is sex-positive and thrillingly true-to-life.<b> I found refuge in it and will always fall hard on anything Washington writes.</b> <b>Brimming with food sex joy intimacy hella specific jokes and the broken tools that we inherit to save our lives <i>Family Meal</i> is nourishment. An absolutely gorgeous book.</b> <b>Masterful... Washington lays it all out with the control and artistry of a ballet choreographer</b> Bryan Washington speaks for people who have too long been silenced and the voice he has found for them is <b>defiant compassionate decent and profoundly human</b> <b>A beautiful novel... Sensual sometimes sad ultimately hopeful</b> <b>A sensual immersion in loss grief food and sex. Compelling... Deeply felt... Beautiful </b> <b>Achingly and beautifully etched</b>... Washington has a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while offering his characters - and his readers - space for self-forgiveness hope and nourishment <b>One of the best books I've read this year. Truly masterful</b> <b><i>Family Meal</i> is filled with love-for the sensual pleasure of life the places that we call home the beauty of the people around us. This novel will break your heart twice over with sadness sure but more unexpectedly with joy. It takes a generous writer to show us the world in this way and Bryan Washington is one of our best.</b><br><b></b> <i>Family Meal</i> is everything that Bryan Washington's work has promised so far: <b>a fiercely written by turns heartbreaking terrifying and horny gaze on American masculinity friendship and love</b> always with a clear sense of place and environment. Its take on grief and desire of selfishness and generosity and of the ways in which the Black masc body might be dismantled or caressed is sex-positive and thrillingly true-to-life.<b> I found refuge in it and will always fall hard on anything Washington writes.</b> <b>Brimming with food sex joy intimacy hella specific jokes and the broken tools that we inherit to save our lives <i>Family Meal</i> is nourishment. An absolutely gorgeous book.</b>