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A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy'
Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted...
Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love.
NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY:
SUNDAY TIMES THE TIMES DAILY MAIL THE TELEGRAPH RADIO 4 IRISH TIMES
'This feels like a vision for the 21st-century novel... It made me happy'
Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past, while back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted...
Funny and profound, Memorial is about family in all its strange forms, becoming who you're supposed to be and the outer limits of love.
NAMED A BOOK TO WATCH IN 2021 BY:
SUNDAY TIMES THE TIMES DAILY MAIL THE TELEGRAPH RADIO 4 IRISH TIMES
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Reviews
"A tender, wistful, often profound story about a deteriorating romance between two twentysomething men... Lo-fi and intimate"
Sunday Times
"Funny and moving... Memorial confirms Washington as a writer not just to watch, but to read now"
The Times
"Brilliantly details the smallest moments that mean the absolute most, the heartbreakingly human limitations of how we love one another"
Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age
"A masterclass in empathy... Washington transforms revelations into cliff-hangers, like Elena Ferrante. He writes layered sex scenes, like Garth Greenwell"
Guardian
"A fresh, vibrant love storythat interweaves race, queerness, nationality, family, and intimacy with narrative ease"
Vogue