Memorial: A24 Acquires Bryan Washington Novel for Its TV Division

October 13, 2020

A24 has won Bryan Washington’s upcoming novel Memorial for its TV division, according to Deadline. The book, which you can pre-order here, is scheduled to be published by Riverhead Press (an imprint of Penguin Random House) on October 27 and Washington will reportedly adapt his work for A24.

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— bryan washington (@brywashing) October 13, 2020

The novel is described as a “funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms. Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson’s a Black day care teacher, and they’ve 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 in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. The trip provokes a transformation as he discovers the truth about his family and his past. 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. Without Mike’s immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.”

Purchase Washington’s short story collection Lot!

Washington has won the Dylan Thomas Prize, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, The Earnest J. Gaines Award for Literary Fiction, A Lambda Literary Awards, and was named by the National Book Awards 5 Under 35. Additionally, he was a finalist for NBCC’s John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Scott Rudin and Eli Bush are attached to produce the adaptation alongside A24.