Ten Bridges I've Burnt
A Memoir in Verse
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Ten Bridges I've Burnt
Buy for $7.73
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Brontez Purnell
-
By:
-
Brontez Purnell
About this listen
In Ten Bridges I've Burnt, Brontez Purnell—the bard of the underloved and overlooked—turns his gaze inward. A storyteller with a musical eye for the absurdity of his own existence, he is peerless in his ability to find the levity within the stormiest of crises. Here, in his first collection of genre-defying verse, Purnell reflects on his peripatetic life, whose ups and downs have nothing on the turmoil within. "The most high-risk homosexual behavior I engage in," Purnell writes, "is simply existing."
The thirty-eight autobiographical pieces pulsing in Ten Bridges I've Burnt find Purnell at his no-holds-barred best. He remembers a vicious brawl he participated in at a poetry conference and reckons with packaging his trauma for TV writers' rooms; wrestles with the curses, and gifts, passed down from generations of family members; and chronicles, with breathless verve, a list of hell-raising misadventures and sexcapades. Through it all, he muses on everything from love and loneliness to capitalism and Blackness to jogging and the ethics of art, always with unpredictable clarity and movement.
With the same balance of wit and wisdom that made 100 Boyfriends a sensation, Purnell unleashes another collection of boundary-pushing writing with Ten Bridges I've Burnt, a book as original and thrilling as the author himself.
©2024 Brontez Purnell (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
100 Boyfriends
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure - from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama - Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it - or perhaps because of it - they shine.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story but omg
- By Angela Martinez on 06-24-22
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Since I Laid My Burden Down
- A Novel
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 18
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?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Shameless and raw
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-24
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Coexistence
- Stories
- By: Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Narrated by: Hunter Cardinal, Trevor Mitchell, John Wamsley
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
A grieving mother calls out to her faraway son. A student forgoes the lurid appeal of dating apps in exchange for a painter’s love. The anonymous voices of queer native men converge amid violent eroticism. A man just out of prison balances the uneasy weight of family and freedom, while a professor returns home to conduct research only to be haunted by a dark specter. The stories and voices in Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut story collection are buoyed by philosophical undergirding, poetic demand, and the complex relationship between aesthetics and ethics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Human emotion, human reflection
- By Andres Alfredo Gomez on 06-23-24
-
Paper Doll
- Notes from a Late Bloomer
- By: Dylan Mulvaney
- Narrated by: Dylan Mulvaney
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 67
When Dylan Mulvaney came out as a woman online, she was a viral sensation almost overnight, emerging as a trailblazing voice on social media. Dylan’s personal coming-out story blossomed into a platform for advocacy and empowerment for trans people all over the world. Through her “Days of Girlhood” series, she connected with followers by exploring what it means to be a girl, from experimenting with makeup to story times to spilling the tea about laser hair removal, while never shying away from discussing the transphobia she faced online.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love at first listen
- By ekell on 03-24-25
By: Dylan Mulvaney
-
Black Friend
- Essays
- By: Ziwe
- Narrated by: Ziwe
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 285
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 260
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 259
Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and personal stories that grapple with her own (mis)understanding of identity. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in the woods, Ziwe raises difficult questions for comedic relief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Something for everyone
- By Happy on 10-21-23
By: Ziwe
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 532
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 452
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 452
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
-
100 Boyfriends
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure - from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama - Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it - or perhaps because of it - they shine.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story but omg
- By Angela Martinez on 06-24-22
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Since I Laid My Burden Down
- A Novel
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 18
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?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Shameless and raw
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-24
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Coexistence
- Stories
- By: Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Narrated by: Hunter Cardinal, Trevor Mitchell, John Wamsley
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
A grieving mother calls out to her faraway son. A student forgoes the lurid appeal of dating apps in exchange for a painter’s love. The anonymous voices of queer native men converge amid violent eroticism. A man just out of prison balances the uneasy weight of family and freedom, while a professor returns home to conduct research only to be haunted by a dark specter. The stories and voices in Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut story collection are buoyed by philosophical undergirding, poetic demand, and the complex relationship between aesthetics and ethics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Human emotion, human reflection
- By Andres Alfredo Gomez on 06-23-24
-
Paper Doll
- Notes from a Late Bloomer
- By: Dylan Mulvaney
- Narrated by: Dylan Mulvaney
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 67
When Dylan Mulvaney came out as a woman online, she was a viral sensation almost overnight, emerging as a trailblazing voice on social media. Dylan’s personal coming-out story blossomed into a platform for advocacy and empowerment for trans people all over the world. Through her “Days of Girlhood” series, she connected with followers by exploring what it means to be a girl, from experimenting with makeup to story times to spilling the tea about laser hair removal, while never shying away from discussing the transphobia she faced online.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love at first listen
- By ekell on 03-24-25
By: Dylan Mulvaney
-
Black Friend
- Essays
- By: Ziwe
- Narrated by: Ziwe
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 285
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 260
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 259
Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and personal stories that grapple with her own (mis)understanding of identity. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in the woods, Ziwe raises difficult questions for comedic relief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Something for everyone
- By Happy on 10-21-23
By: Ziwe
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 532
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 452
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 452
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
-
Rubyfruit Jungle
- A Novel
- By: Rita Mae Brown
- Narrated by: Anna Paquin
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 170
In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes - and she refuses to apologize for loving them back.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Worth Every Moment
- By Kristena C on 01-02-23
By: Rita Mae Brown
-
It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time
- The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote
- By: Bruce Vilanch
- Narrated by: Bruce Vilanch
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 34
Bruce Vilanch is known as a go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and top-heavy variety specials, but he has also been responsible for quite a few of the worst shows ever put on television—legendarily bad productions. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, forgotten, dismissed, and embraced in decades of working in show business
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
For show biz lovers
- By Sarasota on 03-07-25
By: Bruce Vilanch
-
Bury Your Gays
- By: Chuck Tingle
- Narrated by: André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 332
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 311
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The hype is real.
- By Dan Bugbee on 10-03-24
By: Chuck Tingle
-
Lie with Me
- A Novel
- By: Philippe Besson, Molly Ringwald - translator
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 764
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 682
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 676
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Memoir or fiction, either way it's enthralling.
- By Keith G on 05-08-19
By: Philippe Besson, and others
-
Chelsea Girls
- A Novel
- By: Eileen Myles
- Narrated by: Eileen Myles
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
In this breathtakingly inventive autobiographical novel, Eileen Myles transforms life into a work of art. Told in her audacious voice, made vivid and immediate in her lyrical language, Chelsea Girls cobbles together memories of Myles's 1960s Catholic upbringing with an alcoholic father, her volatile adolescence, her unabashed "lesbianity," and her riotous pursuit of survival as a poet in 1970s New York.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fascinatingly skanky
- By Megon J. Walker on 07-15-16
By: Eileen Myles
-
Private Rites
- A Novel
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Hannah van der Westhuysen
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 24
It’s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and old rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father, an architect as cruel as he was revered, dies. His death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father’s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully Written, But Mainly Fluff and Filler
- By Megs on 02-26-25
By: Julia Armfield
What listeners say about Ten Bridges I've Burnt
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lydia Paddon
- 04-07-24
This work, this project these poems this poet 🫶
After first listen I am simultaneously electrified and completely stunned. As if was about to witness an eclipse of major disaster or god only knows. I don’t yet have the language to leave a fuller review because these words, these poems, this poet, is remarkable. Starting my second listen at this very moment. I think it’s gonna be on heavy rotation in my ears. Just listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andre
- 02-15-24
Direct, No B.S.
I loved this book. I saw Brontez tell bawdy stories at a story slam a decade ago, read his prose books, and am impressed with how far he has come. His verse is direct with no B.S. It is both entertaining and enlightening. I highly recommend his latest achievement.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!