{"product_id":"book-hlak","title":"Since I Laid My Burden Down","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhiting Award winner Brontez Purnell's debut novel is an uninhibited portrait of growing up gay in 1980s Alabama: exploring art and sex with “more layered insight than the page count should allow” (Hanif Abdurraqib,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMTV News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeShawn lives a high, creative, and promiscuous life in San Francisco. But when he's called back to his cramped Alabama hometown for his uncle's funeral, he's hit by flashbacks of handsome, doomed neighbors and sweltering Sunday services. Amid prickly reminders of his childhood, DeShawn ponders family, church, and the men in his life, prompting the question: Who deserves love? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA modern American classic, \u003ci\u003eSince I Laid My Burden Down\u003c\/i\u003e is a raw and searing look into the intersections of memory, Blackness, and queerness. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An antidote to the rigamarole of gay lit.\" (\u003ci\u003eMask\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine) \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Slim yet potently realized, with a lot to ponder.\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Bay Area Reporter\u003c\/i\u003e) \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSince I Laid My Burden Down\u003c\/i\u003e has a fearless (sometimes reckless) humor as Brontez Purnell interrogates what it means to be black, male, queer; a son, an uncle, a lover; Southern, punk, and human. An emotional tightrope walk of a book and an important American story rarely, if ever, told.” (Michelle Tea, author of \u003ci\u003eBlack Wave\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Audible","offers":[{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":67916772868400,"sku":"ZEhlak","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD [10]","offer_id":49352228929840,"sku":"10hlak","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/hlak-Square-cover.webp?v=1790867949","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-hlak","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}