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Nothing to See Here: A Read with Jenna Pick Kindle Edition
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.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEcco
- Publication dateOctober 29, 2019
- File size2388 KB
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What's it about?
A woman finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.Amazon editors say...
A moving and authentic portrait of parenthood, with a lightness and joy that permeate every page.
Al Woodworth, Amazon EditorPopular highlight
A lot of times when I think I’m being self-sufficient, I’m really just learning to live without the things that I need.3,345 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Maybe raising children was just giving them the things you loved most in the world and hoping that they loved them, too.2,435 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Maybe that’s what children were, a desperate need that opened you up even if you didn’t want it.1,843 Kindle readers highlighted this
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
“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
About the Author
Kevin Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Nothing to See Here, which was a Read with Jenna book club selection; The Family Fang, which was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman; and Perfect Little World; as well as the story collections Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award; and Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife and two sons.
Product details
- ASIN : B07NVPLW2P
- Publisher : Ecco (October 29, 2019)
- Publication date : October 29, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 2388 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 277 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #22,325 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #71 in Satire Fiction
- #173 in Contemporary Literary Fiction
- #181 in Magical Realism
- Customer Reviews:
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Nothing to See Here
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About the author
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.
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Of course, Nothing to See Here is more than a story about spontaneously combustible kids. It’s about true love in its various forms, classism, and quirky characters that we can all identify with in some way. And so much more.
I read it over a single day because I couldn’t put it down. For me, that’s rare, even for a book this size. Kevin’s writing style grabbed me from page one. So many reviewers have mentioned the sentences and phrases that stand out; one of the professional reviews noted that Nothing to See Here has “mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming.”
I disagree with another earlier reviewer who complained about profanity. I’ve seen a lot more and a lot worse. For me, it wasn’t gratuitous, but rather a natural expression of how some people think and talk. It seemed especially fitting for the narrator or even the children when trying to impress the adults.
Some might disagree with me here, but I kept hearing Holden Caulfield’s voice. While Lil isn’t a teen anymore, she seems stuck in her development at a young age, so her disaffected and snarky attitude seemed to fit the Catcher in the Rye hero to a T. I’m inspired to pick up the old classic and give it another turn.
So much fun! I can’t wait to read more from Kevin Wilson.
Excellent book club material
Appreciation for fantasy required
I enjoyed the novel even though fantasy is not my favorite genre
Top reviews from other countries
But caring for neglected and scarred 'fire' children is not going to be easy. It is going to make Lilian, see a little bit of herself in them, stop being pushed around and take a stand, for once in her life, and make her desperate to succeed at this.
It'll strip bare the layers of Madison and Lilian's relationship to reveal how, when it comes to people we love, we don't see things and people as binary (either good or bad, in black or white, either wrong or right).
A parte mais fácil de acreditar, mais bem construída é fantástica, das crianças pegando fogo. O que há de realista é um tanto superficial, especialmente as personagens – nenhuma tem muita profundidade, são mais estereótipos –, e a trama previsível não ajuda muito – é possível perceber onde vai chegar logo no começo (geralmente, isso não é um problema para mim, o que importa é “como se conta”, e não “o que se conta”, mas aqui nenhum dos dois são muito apurados). É um livro divertido, uma leitura rápida e pueril que, inevitavelmente, deverá virar um filme com aspirações a Oscars e afins.