Wild Ground

A Novel

By: Emily Usher

Narrated by: Natalie Gavin

A story of first love that will break your heart, this bittersweet debut novel follows two teenagers whose all-consuming relationship is tested by the forces of class, prejudice, and addiction.

“Reading this book is like holding a heartbeat in your hands.”—Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury

There were parts that were bliss, there were parts that were full and faultless and laden with joy. The way everything Danny and I did, everything we felt, we did, we felt together. The way we loved and loved and loved each other.

From the beginning, it has always been Neef and her mother, Chrissy—troubled, beautiful, at the mercy of addiction and a revolving door of bad relationships. When Neef turns twelve, they move from inner-city Leeds to a small Yorkshire town to follow Chrissy’s much-older boyfriend, who runs the local pub. But for Neef, perhaps it’s also a chance to start over. On her first day in her new home, it becomes Neef and Danny, the boy who captures her attention planting flowers in the pub garden—and then, it is somehow always Danny.

Danny is seen as an outsider by those around him; half Jamaican, he and his father are the only people of color in their community. Immediately drawn to each other, Neef and Danny form a friendship that gives way to the slow burn of romance as they grow up. Desperate to escape the confines of their world, Neef and Danny cling to each other throughout their adolescence, even as their relationship strains against the same forces that hold their families hostage: substance abuse, poverty, racism. For a while, though, it seems like it could be Neef and Danny forever.

But then, finally, it is just Neef: sober, living in London, trying to tell herself she never knew a boy called Danny, never loved him, never had him wrenched away. That is, until someone from those days comes seeking redemption, and she cannot pretend any longer.

Braiding together past and present, Wild Ground introduces us to a young woman both coming of age and coming to terms with herself. This tender and moving debut, at once heartbreaking and hopeful, is an aching love story that you will find impossible to forget.

©2024 Emily Usher (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A hypnotic story of both beauty and betrayal . . . Reading this book is like holding a heartbeat in your hands. It’s bare, melodic, and thrums with a bold and aching pulse.”—Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury

“Emily Usher captures first love in all its tender, aching radiance, in a heartrending and gorgeously written portrait of adolescence.”—Justine Champine, author of Knife River

“A love story that captures the realities of being young and oppressed, yet hopeful and searching, Wild Ground is honest, unfailingly compassionate, and so touching as to be heartbreaking.”—Beth Raymer, author of Fireworks Every Night