Audiobook of the Year Winner: Heavy
We’ve been calling 2018 the year of the memoir
around the Audible offices. As listeners, we’re craving the personal more than ever—and there’s nothing more personal than someone telling you their story in their own voice. When the audio for Heavy first arrived in my inbox, I instantly knew it was something special. Writing in the form of a letter to his mother, Kiese Laymon leaves everything on the table to tell us about his childhood as a black boy growing up in Mississippi. In poetic delivery, he details the eating disorders, addictions, and bittersweet family love that have followed him throughout his life. I was stunned not only by his immense talent as a writer, but also by the unprecedented intimacy of what he was choosing to share. This is a voice we’ve rarely heard speak so vulnerably and frankly about the truth of what it is to be human. And it’s a voice that, perhaps more than any other this year, needs to be heard. —Rachel, Audible Editor
