NATIONAL BESTSELLERNamed a Best Book of the Year by: Time * Kirkus Reviews * USA Today * Entertainment Weekly * Garden Gun * Vox * Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionA 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 WeekAn exuberant, bighearted novel about two teenage misfits who spectacularly collide one fateful summer, and the art they make that changes their lives foreverSixteen-year-old Frankie Budgeaspiring writer, indifferent student, offbeat loneris determined to make it through yet another summer in Coalfield, Tennessee, when she meets Zeke, a talented artist who has just moved into his grandmothers 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 wont 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 Wilsons trademark wit and blazing prose,Now Is Not the Time to Panicis a nuanced exploration of young love, identity, and the power of art. Its also about the secrets that haunt usand, ultimately, what the truth will set free.
