Infinite Books

At what point do strangers become family, and family change into strangers?  

A mother and a son. The son is young, Black, and gay; he left his family in the States and moved to Tokyo. The mother had a fair share of moving in her life as well: first from Jamaica to Toronto, then to Houston, where she currently works as a dental assistant. They hadn’t seen each other and hadn’t spoken by phone in almost a decade. Then one day, the mother shows up in her son’s Tokyo apartment.  It seems that her stay will have virtually no impact on the son, and she is not a woman who demands explanations or tries to justify her own behavior. Slowly, in the streets of Tokyo, as she visits bars and stores that the son also frequents, she finds calmness and time.

The son, a deeply sensitive man prone to panic attacks, anxiety, and depression, and with his own issues of never being accepted by his family, especially by his homophobic brother, slowly builds new friendships. The people he meets, usually in a gay bar, become his family —a group of outcasts who have either moved to Tokyo or lived there, harboring secrets that are hard for mainstream society to accept. And, gradually, the mother and son find each other somehow. Their time together, everyday living, cooking, eating, and giving each other enough space to breathe, led to a deeper understanding and appreciation. The new ties develop, this time much deeper than their previous superficial family connections.

This novel entranced me. It’s beautifully written in a style that is poetic and powerful. The central dynamic is between the mother and the son, but each character is given the same amount of care and attention, with flashbacks to their past. Even the secondary characters are meaningful and touching. It’s an uplifting story that every reader can relate to: a beautiful, much-needed, quiet masterpiece by Bryan Washington. What an experience!

PALAVER by Bryan Washington, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025