NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Vox The Paris Review NPR Vanity Fair A FINALIST FOR THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FIRST FICTION James Frankie Thomasamprsquos Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship in a queer trans and earlyInternet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel. 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 911 serves as the first day of an intense 18month friendship. Fay is prickly aloof and obsessed with gay men Nell is shy sensitive and obsessed with Fay. The two of them bond fiercely and spend all their waking hours giddily parsing their environment for homoerotic subtext. Then during rehearsals for the fall play they notice two sexually ambiguous boys who are potential candidates for their exclusive Invert Society. The pairs become mirrors of one another and drive each other to make choices that theyamprsquoll regret for the rest of their lives. Looking back on these events as adults the estranged Fay and Nell trace that fateful school year recalling backstage theater department intrigue antiwar demonstrations smutty fanfic written over AIM and a shared dialup connectionampmdashand the spectacular cascade of mistakes miscommunications and betrayals that would ultimately tear the two of them apart.