Family Meal

De: Bryan Washington

Narrado por: André Santana, Bryan Washington, Jake Choi

Growing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents—Mae and Jin—took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.

Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam—utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing—crashing back into his world.

When things said—or left unsaid—become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.

©2023 Bryan Washington (P)2023 Atlantic Books Ltd & W. F. Howes Ltd

Complexity of relationships

Amazing tender, caring, loving treatment of each character. The stories of the different timelines and interactions are beautifully arranged. Thereby each given their due, but also revealing, gently allowing us to get to know each protagonist. Now that i have finished.... I will take a moment to digest the emotions stirred up in me... And then i will listen to it again,with a deeper understanding and a curiosity to see how much deeper, more complex, it can become for me. The narrators are wonderful, ebhancing the experience, not distracting from it. The best book in quite a while