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Book Cover for: Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson

Nothing to See Here

Kevin Wilson

Reader Score

90%

90% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 19 reviews on

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The New York Times Best Seller
2019 The New York Times Best Seller
Read with Jenna Book Club
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A New York Times Bestseller - A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, TIME, The A.V. Club, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar

"I can't believe how good this book is.... It's wholly original. It's also perfect.... Wilson writes with such a light touch.... The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn't see coming. You're laughing so hard you don't even realize that you've suddenly caught fire." --Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of Fleishman is in Trouble, New York Times Book Review

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Fang, a moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.

Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they've barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.

Madison's twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there's a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it's the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other--and stay cool--while also staying out of the way of Madison's buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her--urgently and fiercely. Couldn't this be the start of the amazing life she'd always hoped for?

With white-hot wit and a big, tender heart, Kevin Wilson has written his best book yet--a most unusual story of parental love.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Ecco Press
  • Publish Date: Sep 1st, 2020
  • Pages: 288
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.10in - 5.30in - 0.60in - 0.55lb
  • EAN: 9780062913494
  • Categories: Family Life - GeneralLiteraryHumorous - General

About the Author

Wilson, Kevin: -

Kevin Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Nothing to See Here, and The Family Fang, as well as two story collections. His work has received the Shirley Jackson Award and been selected as a Read with Jenna book club pick. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"I can't believe how good this book is. . . . Wholly original. It's also perfect. . . . Wilson writes with such a light touch. . . . That's the brilliance of the novel--that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn't see coming." -- Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times Book Review

"A peculiar, entertaining and insightful book about the hazards of child-rearing and the value of friends." -- People

"[Wilson's] most perfect novel. Paradoxically light and melancholy, it hews to the border of fantasy but stays in the land of realism. . . . You can sense the real heat radiating off these pages. . . . This novel may seem slight and quirky, but don't be fooled. There's a lot to see here."
-- Washington Post

"It's a giddily lunatic premise, one that author Kevin Wilson grounds with humor and deadpan matter-of-factness. . . . Wilson's observational humor is riotous in its specificity. . . . The writing dazzles. . . . But what dazzles most are the warmly rendered dynamics of an ad hoc, dysfunctional family that desperately wants to work." -- USA Today

“There's hardly a sentence that feels like anything you've read before, that's how fresh his voice is. . . . Witty, confiding, breezily profane. . . . That the supernatural elements feel so right is a testament to Wilson's innate skill as a storyteller.” -- Entertainment Weekly

A pleasing blend of tartness and tenderness. . . . . Wilson's ability to capture such tangled sentiments makes him a thoroughly engaging and appealing writer. -- Boston Globe

Darkly funny yet quietly devastating. . . . Wilson crafts a stunning portrait of the push and pull of parenthood. -- Time

"Funny and even eerily beautiful. . . . It's the sweetness of this novel that will melt you." -- NPR.org

Perennially weird and wonderful. . . . Wilson's portrayal of these fire children conveys more emotional truth about life with a difficult or neurodivergent kid than any of those parenting guides. . . . Funny and affecting. -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[A] deadpan, hilarious modern fairy tale." -- Newsday

“Wilson's latest is outlandish and laugh-out-loud funny.” -- Parade

"Weird, funny, but also unexpectedly moving. . . . An affecting reflection on the blithe cruelty of the rich and what it means to be a good parent." -- Buzzfeed

"Quirky and insightful, strange and delightful." -- Popsugar

Kevin Wilson once again dazzles with a bizarre, comic, and heartbreaking tale. . . . A dryly comic, surreal phantasmagoria reminiscent of Kafka, Garcia-Marquez, and their heirs, from David Foster Wallace to Karen Russell. -- Chapter 16

"Wilson captures the wrenching emotions of caring for children in this exceptional, and exceptionally hilarious, novel." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Wilson is a remarkable writer.... A funny and touching fable about love for kids, even the ones on fire." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A love letter to the weirdness and difficulties of children and of parenting, with or without spontaneous human combustion. . . . [With] an easy, engaging voice, cynical and funny without being caustic. Like the author's The Family Fang, this is another story of a family that is as delightfully bizarre as it is heartfelt and true." -- Library Journal

"Lillian tells the story, revealing immediately that she's another of Wilson's normal extraordinary protagonists. . . . She fills the book with her wry humor and large, embracing heart." -- Booklist

"Laugh out loud funny. I love the way Kevin Wilson writes." -- Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winner