{"product_id":"real-life","title":"Real Life","description":"\u003cb\u003eA FINALIST for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the VCU\/Cabell First Novelist Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, the NYPL Young Lions Award, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A blistering coming of age story\" --\u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, New York Public Library, \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair, Elle\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review, Harper's Bazaar\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Huffington Post, BBC, Shondaland, Barnes \u0026amp; Noble, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThrillist\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVice\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSelf\u003c\/i\u003e, Electric Literature, and Shelf Awareness \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAlmost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends--some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eReal Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it's ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47049158066412,"sku":"9780525538899","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/2987\/3644\/files\/imageloader_d9f8484a-c57d-4d62-a283-7dc9bd6ed43b.jpg?v=1764624494","url":"https:\/\/www.gladysbooksandwine.com\/products\/real-life","provider":"Gladys Books \u0026 Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}