
Family Meal
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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André Santana
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Bryan Washington
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Jake Choi
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By:
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Bryan Washington
About this listen
"Achingly and beautifully etched. . . Washington is a generous and gentle writer, with a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while simultaneously offering his characters—and readers—an expansive space for self-forgiveness, hope, and nourishment."—The Washington Post
The ghost of Kai, the love of Cam's life, won't leave Cam alone. He follows Cam from LA back home to Houston, his visits wild, tender, and unpredictable. But Cam has changed, and when he reenters the orbit of his childhood best friend TJ and his family's bakery, neither Cam nor TJ is sure how to navigate their charged estrangement. Searching for a way past all the wounds and secrets—a way to be okay together, maybe for the first time— the pair find hope and sustenance from the most unlikely source.
From the bestselling, award-winning author Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about how those know us longest—even when they hurt us most—can also set the benchmark for love.
©2023 Bryan Washington (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of Fall
NAMED A MUST READ FOR THE FALL BY TIME ● LOS ANGELES TIMES ● SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ● TOWN & COUNTRY ● LITHUB ● KIRKUS
“What makes Washington’s writing about family so refreshing and complex is how he shows the ways people attempt to demonstrate the emotions they otherwise have trouble expressing to the ones they hold dear.... Family Meal juggles a lot—Cam and TJ are both dealing with their present situations and with the phantoms of opportunities ignored and hard choices enacted—but Washington lays it all out with the control and artistry of a ballet choreographer. Each story line gives the other strength."—New York Times Book Review
“For anyone who’s read Washington’s multiple-award-winning first novel, Memorial, you know he has a knack for measured storytelling that builds momentum and gradually fills in holes before culminating in a finale that washes over you like a giant torrent of meaning and consequences that leave you gasping for air (in a good way).... Washington’s other gift is creating viscerally vulnerable characters and allowing their refreshingly open conversations to flow, showing just how hard—but ultimately rewarding—facing difficult issues head-on can be.... Ultimately, the power of Family Meal is that it shows us how to hold space for each other, through life’s highest highs and lowest lows.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Bryan Washington is already high on the list of our most exciting young authors, and with his latest release Family Meal he once again shows why our anticipation is well-deserved. … Family Meal travels the world to settings including LA, Houston, and Osaka, but Washington never loses sight of the prevailing sense of intimacy and vulnerability that makes this novel truly great.”—Chicago Review of Books
Editorial Review
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- By KristiW594 on 03-20-23
By: Johnny Compton
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Homebodies
- A Novel
- By: Tembe Denton-Hurst
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter, but, for now, her days are filled with listicles about lip gloss and click-bait articles about celebrity haircare. Still, the job is flashy and her girlfriend is steady and supportive. The path may be long, but Mickey’s well on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Everything finally seems to be falling into place—until she finds out she’s being replaced.
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I wanted more
- By Reya on 03-16-25
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The Kindest Lie
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Johnson
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 2008, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to leave behind—when she was a teenager. She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that she must make peace with the past. Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair.
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a fantastic book club novel
- By Barbara S on 03-05-21
By: Nancy Johnson
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Let Us Descend
- A Novel
- By: Jesmyn Ward
- Narrated by: Jesmyn Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Let Us Descend describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. A journey that is as beautifully rendered as it is heart wrenching, the novel is “[t]he literary equivalent of an open wound from which poetry pours” (NPR). Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the listener’s guide. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother.
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Usually I enjoy an author reading…
- By Patio on 11-04-23
By: Jesmyn Ward
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The Late Americans
- A Novel
- By: Brandon Taylor
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.”
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Characters Lacked Depth, No Plot
- By MLB on 07-06-23
By: Brandon Taylor
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Little Rot
- A Novel
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye, Chukwudi Iwuji
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from the breakup, visits an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos, brutally and suddenly upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, collide into the scene just as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt and glittering underworld, they’re all looking for a way out, fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over them.
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Haunting
- By Ciara Taylor on 04-28-25
By: Akwaeke Emezi
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Junie
- A Novel
- By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act.
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Delilah June ❤️❤️❤️
- By Mimi Marie C on 04-30-25
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Seven Days in June
- By: Tia Williams
- Narrated by: Mela Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award‑winning novelist, who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that 15 years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love.
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Better than the Reviews Say
- By Akuba on 09-26-21
By: Tia Williams
What listeners say about Family Meal
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Luther Travis
- 10-13-23
Where’s the depth
The story was missing more depth for me, mainly since there was a warning about self-harm, addiction, and disordered eating. I felt these issues could have been more hammered out for me to feel for the characters. The story reads with a lot of “I said, Cam said, TJ said, etc.” Overall, it is a straightforward plot to follow. I just wish more emotion was written to pull me in and to feel for the characters rather than feeling I just listened to them.
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- QueeneB21
- 10-20-23
Cam and TJ, friends always
3.5 Stars. TJ and Cam, childhood friends who navigate life, loss and friendship. *** very graphic sex is a deep part of the story ***
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- Quinn
- 10-11-23
Fantastic.
Bryan Washington is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I devoured this book just as I did with Memorial.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rabia
- 10-21-23
Just okay
There’s tenderness there and more, but since this is audible, the halted way it’s forced to be listened to was not enjoyable at all.
Others haven’t commented that they noticed this, so that could just be me
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- Tillienedeau
- 04-02-24
It’s never easy, letting you
I read some respected reviews that were quite negative. I did not know if I could read this book. Then I listened. The readers infused so much feeling into these words. My heart hurt for these people. The pain they felt throughout this story. Bottom line though was how much love and care they gave to eachother. Bryan Washington’s Memorial gave me the same feelings of connection of people to eachother. Stunning.
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- sue m
- 12-18-23
Downloaded by Accident
Storyline didn't match up to the description. Word Word Word Word Word Word Word word.
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- Samantha
- 12-12-23
Bad Knockoff of A Little Life
The story felt like a bad knockoff of A Little Life. And the inconsistent reading of the name Noel was incredibly distracting.
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