NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of the Year by: Time * Kirkus Reviews * USA
Today * Entertainment Weekly * Garden & Gun * Vox * Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
A Most Anticipated Book of Fall from: Associated Press * Atlanta
Journal-Constitution * BookPage * Book Riot * The Boston Globe *
Entertainment Weekly * Esquire * Garden & Gun * LitHub * St. Louis
Post-Dispatch * Sunset Magazine * Time * Town & Country * The
Millions * USA Today * Vogue * Vulture * The Week
An exuberant, bighearted novel about two teenage misfits who
spectacularly collide one fateful summer, and the art they make that
changes their lives forever
Sixteen-year-old Frankie Budge--aspiring writer, indifferent student,
offbeat loner--is determined to make it through yet another summer in
Coalfield, Tennessee, when she meets Zeke, a talented artist who has
just moved into his grandmother's house and who is as awkward as Frankie
is. Romantic and creative sparks begin to fly, and when the two jointly
make an unsigned poster, shot through with an enigmatic phrase, it
becomes unforgettable to anyone who sees it. The edge is a shantytown
filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with
hunger for us.
When the posters begin appearing everywhere, people wonder who is behind
them and start to panic. Satanists? Kidnappers? The rumors won't stop,
and soon the mystery has dangerous repercussions that spread far beyond
the town.
Twenty years later, Frances Eleanor Budge gets a call that threatens to
upend her carefully built life: a journalist named Mazzy Brower is
writing a story about the Coalfield Panic of 1996. Might Frances know
something about that?
A bold coming-of-age story, written with Kevin Wilson's trademark wit
and blazing prose, Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a nuanced
exploration of young love, identity, and the power of art. It's also
about the secrets that haunt us--and, ultimately, what the truth will
set free.
