A novel about the unconventional family.
Cam, African American, and TJ, of Korean descent, reunite after years apart. They were inseparable as children and discovered their homosexuality together. TJ’s parents, who own a bakery, welcomed Cam as one of the family. Later, life separated the two friends, and each has gone through painful experiences. Cam lost his partner, Kai, who still appears to him like a ghostly presence, and TJ lost his father in an accident. Both carry other intimate sorrows that their reunion will help them face… In the background, the Texan city of Houston, undergoing rapid gentrification in some neighborhoods, like the one where TJ’s family bakery is located.
After the success of Memorial, Bryan Washington returns with the same strengths that propelled him as a writer: his intimate tone, his characters searching for love, friendship, and second chances, and his ability to explore human emotions, weaknesses, and hopes. In this second novel, he once again subtly, deeply, and with touches of humor explores themes such as race, sexual identity, desire, and family—or what we can understand as family in a broad, protective, welcoming sense.
