Since I Laid My Burden Down

A Novel

By: Brontez Purnell

Narrated by: Brontez Purnell

Whiting 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, MTV News).

DeShawn 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?

A modern American classic, Since I Laid My Burden Down is a raw and searing look into the intersections of memory, Blackness, and queerness.

"An antidote to the rigamarole of gay lit." (Mask Magazine)

"Slim yet potently realized, with a lot to ponder." (The Bay Area Reporter)

“Since I Laid My Burden Down 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 Black Wave)

©2017 Brontez Purnell (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Good story, bad reader

Struggling listen to the story. The reader 's voice is a little distracting. I hope you reissue the book with another reader.

Strong, Vibrant, Storytelling

I loved this book. Brontez performing his story of DeShaun and his life were so powerful. I loved how genuinely reflective Brontez was when speaking to his family dynamics. One of my favorite reads this year.

Almost, but not Quite There

Should have sought another reader. His voice was monotone and boring. Storyline was rather good.

Shameless and raw

It’s just too good for this world, Brontez is a master at describing sluttish ways.