Idle Grounds - by Krystelle Bamford (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"This debut novel is superb. Idle Grounds is a remarkable, preternatural study of a family reckoning with its own history ... Bamford's arresting novel briefly unveils the strangeness [of childhood] once again." --The Telegraph

In this mesmerizing, sharply funny story about a family in decline, set in 1989 New England, a group of young cousins wander deep into the woods their grandparents once owned--finding that the farther they go, the stranger their surroundings become.

As always with these things it started with a birthday party.

Lingering at the edge of a family party, a troop of cousins loses track of the youngest child among them. With their parents preoccupied with bickering about decades-old crises, the children decide to investigate themselves--to the rickety chicken coop, the barn and its two troublesome horses, and into the woods that once comprised their late grandmother's property. The more the children search, and the deeper they walk, the more unsettling the woods become and the more lost they are, caught between their aunt's home in the present day, their parents' childhood home just through the trees, and the memory of the house their grandmother grew up in. Soon, what began as a quest for answers gives way to a journey that undermines everything they've been told about who they are, where they came from, and what they deserve.

Told in the young cousins' collective voice, in a mode that moves between childhood memory, New England Gothic, and a Reagan-era Nancy Drew, Idle Grounds is an "unsettling and sharply funny" (The Guardian) exploration of the interior lives of children and a gripping meditation on birthright, decline, and the weight of family history. A fable of the distortions of privilege and the impossibility of keeping secrets hidden, this is a novel about straying from home--only to come back unraveled, unsettled, and irrevocably changed.

Review Quotes

One of Town & Country's Best Books of February

A Lit Hub, TAG24, Dazed Digital, and Cosmopolitan UK Most Anticipated Book

"A chilling exploration of privilege, memory, and the unsettling weight of inherited history. It's a spiraling tale that you'll feel compelled to finish in one sitting, quick-moving and innovative. Bamford shines light into the inner lives of children - their strange fixations and values - and makes you feel like a child yourself, immersed in a world where everything feels a bit scary and a bit magical."
--Oprah Daily

"A literary journey rich with magical realism, beautiful and eerie all at once...Idle Grounds is a gorgeous first offering by an author with prodigious skill."
--Booklist

"An eerie and powerful exploration of family and identity, Idle Grounds is truly a read like no other."
--TAG24

"Arch and haunting...in barbed, poetic prose, Bamford captures the cousins' uneasy communal existence. It's a fresh spin on the well-worn trope of a family with secrets."
--Publishers Weekly

"Darkly comedic...an unsettling and atmospheric journey."
--Town & Country

"Glimmering with foreboding, Bamford's debut is an eerie consideration of family secrets in a sun-dappled setting...The novel casts an atmospheric spell with its surreal episodes and hints of unhappiness...Curious and original."
--Kirkus

"Pensive and lush, yet sharp and funny, Idle Grounds is such a unique novel. Bamford's style is bright and clever, and the book is easy to read and challenging in the way of great literature. It is weird, wonderful and highly recommended."
--Bookreporter

About the Author