PALAVER: Bryan Washington in conversation with Tawseef Khan

We are thrilled to welcome Bryan Washington to Blackwell's on the 22nd of January to discuss his latest novel Palaver, a heartfelt story of family and home. Bryan will be in conversation with Tawseef Khan, author of Determination.

Doors: 6.30pm, starts: 6.45pm

Tickets are £4. Admission is free when purchasing a copy the book.

About the book:

In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor, drinking 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 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 bristle against 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 begins to steer them in unexpected directions - the mother to a tentative friendship with a local bistro owner, and the son to cautiously getting to know a new patron of the bar - the two of them begin to see each other more clearly.

Sharing meals and conversations and an eventful trip to Nara, both mother and son try the best they can to define where 'home' really is - and whether they can find it even in each other.

"Such a joy." - Ocean Vuong

"It’ll break and remake your heart." - Andrew Sean Greer

About the author:

Bryan Washington is the author of the story collection Lot and the novels Memorial and Family Meal. A National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree, he is the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize, the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, the Ernest J. Gaines Award, two Lambda Literary Awards, and an O. Henry Prize, and he has been a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence, and the James Tait Black Prize. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times, his writing has also appeared in Granta, The New York Times Magazine, Time, GQ, and Esquire, among many other places. He is based in Tokyo.

If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of the book, please email [email protected] or call us on 0161 274 3331.

Our event format is usually a 45 minute discussion between the author and interviewer, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event. Events are a brilliant opportunity to discover new books, meet authors and likeminded readers and learn something new.

Support your local bookshop and help us keep the Manchester literary scene vibrant and exciting. You can follow us on Eventbrite and social media (@BlackwellsMCR) to keep up to date on upcoming events.

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