James Frankie Thomas

Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan. Students call their teachers by their first names, there are no grades, and every day begins with 20 minutes of contemplative silence in the Meetinghouse. It is during one of those meetings that an airplane hits the Twin Towers. For two Idlewild outcasts, 9/11 serves as the first day...

A BEST BOOK OF 2023 ACCORDING TO: NPR Vanity Fair The Paris Review * Vox James Frankie Thomas's novel Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship, refracting the traditional coming-of-age story through queerness, trans identity, and the early days of the social Internet. Idlewild is a small, artsy Quaker high school...