Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction "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.”― The Washington Post One of TIME's Must-Read Books of 2025 and Kirkus ' Best of Fiction 2025 One of The Washington Post 's Best Fiction Books of the Year Named 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 & 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. “Bryan Washington is, in my opinion, one of the best fiction writers out there . [His novels] are all so perfectly tuned into the emotions, interiorities, and relationships of their characters that they are a joy to read from start to finish . . . Like all of Washington’s books, [ Palaver ] is rich with character, place, humor, and love .” ―Sarah Neilson, them “ It’s Washington’s first novel where Houston is more of a ghost than [a] living, breathing thing. It’s a compelling shift . . . As is always the case with Washington, the answer isn’t neat, but Palaver isn’t absent of catharsis. There are lots of moments where the characters catch you off guard with their observations, reminiscent of when a friend randomly says a deeply profound thing while you’re having a totally ordinary conversation . Overall, a welcome return to Washington’s world .” ―Tembe Denton-Hurst, The Cut “Bryan Washington writes about queer relationships and parent-child tensions like he’s working with a fine-toothed comb. The emotion he manages to convey in a single line of dialogue? Incredible . . . This is a beautiful, beautiful book .” ―Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle (Best of Fall) “ Understated yet potent . . . Washington examines varying experiences of displacement, writing with tenderness about the tolls of emigration and exile, both cultural and familial . . . The text is enhanced by the inclusion of numerous black-and-white photographs of Tokyo.” ―The New Yorker “ Palaver ’s broken parent-child bond starts off as defining but melts into part of a whole network of connections. As one character remarks, others ‘help us see ourselves clearer’ . . . This is Washington’s best and most moving work yet .” ―Rebecca Foster, Shelf Awareness (starred review) “[ Palaver ’s] rhythmic interweaving is quite an achievement; the frequent set changes, rather than disrupting or fracturing the narrative, inculcate a hypnotic desire in the reader to keep looking.” ―Hannah Gold, The New York Times "This novel feels like a hug. One of those redemptive hugs that comes after a difficult but necessary conversation . . . [The mother and son's] awkward, emotionally raw―and often very funny―conversations find them undertaking the quiet, complicated work of trying to understand each other.” ―Apple Books (Staff Pick) "In between deep dives into the past are wonderfully moody, wholly immersive snapshots of the characters’ intersecting present lives, which both propel the narrative forward and contribute to some of its magic . . . 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 .” ―Alexis Burling, The Washington Post “ Palaver ’s broken parent-child bond starts off as defining but melts into part of a whole network