Nothing to See Here
Kevin Wilson's 2019 novel is narrated by Lillian, a smart, broke, twenty-eight-year-old woman who has been working a grocery store stocking shift in small-town Tennessee since a scholarship-era scandal pushed her out of an elite boarding school years ago. Out of nowhere, her old wealthy roommate Madison, now married to a senator with national ambitions, calls in a favor. The senator's first wife has died, leaving twin ten-year-old stepchildren who, in moments of stress, literally burst into flame without being injured themselves. Madison wants Lillian to live in a guesthouse on their estate for the summer and keep these children quiet, contained, and far from the press. Wilson writes the absurd premise straight, and what unfolds is an unexpectedly tender book about the kind of love that shows up even when it was hired by the hour. The novel won the Southern Book Prize.
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What you might want to know about Nothing to See Here
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Lillian, going nowhere in a Tennessee grocery store, gets a strange call from her old prep-school best friend Madison. Madison's senator husband's twin children, by his late first wife, literally burst into flames when stressed.
No. Nothing to See Here is fictional. Kevin Wilson invented the premise of children who spontaneously combust when emotionally distressed and the politically connected family that hides them.
Yes. A film adaptation has been announced. As of 2025, the project remains in development.
Nothing to See Here was written by Kevin Wilson, published in 2019 by HarperCollins.
Nothing to See Here is 254 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Nothing to See Here takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Nothing to See Here is a standalone novel by Kevin Wilson, not part of a series.
Nothing to See Here is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
