The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt

Set in the fictional town of Bound, South Carolina, once ruled by the Kratts and now struggling to contain its worst instincts, The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt explores the power of objects, the weight of memory, and the ties between who we are and what we own. Judith inherited all the Kratt family had to offer—the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder no one talks about. For decades, she's been the keeper of the family house, safeguarding its valuables and its secrets. But Rosemarie, her wayward younger sister, suddenly returns home, sparking Judith to write an inventory of all that belongs to them. As Judith writes, she finds that cataloging the family heirlooms can’t suppress their histories, not when Rosemarie is determined to expose what Judith had planned to take to her grave.

Interweaving the present with chilling flashbacks from one fateful evening in 1929, Judith pieces together a list of what matters, an undertaking that lays bare the very inheritance she'd hoped to forget—one of bigotry and survival in the segregated South. As Judith faces this troubled history, she must also confront its legacy in her own household, which she shares with her companion, Olva, who occupies the disquieting space between family member and one of the “help.”