Avalon

Nell Zink left Southern California for eastern Virginia in 1972, aged eight. After completing a B.A. in philosophy at the College of William and Mary, she worked mostly as a secretary, with stints in masonry, technical writing, and translating. Her books include The Wallcreeper, Mislaid, Private Novelist, Nicotine, and Doxology, and her writing has appeared in n+1, Granta, and Harper's Magazine.

'A gorgeous love story and a hilarious political novel about precarity and abuse in the era of late capitalism.' Neel Mukherjee, author of Man Booker Prize-shortlisted The Lives of Others

'Zink's confidence and authority as a writer are evident from Avalon's killer first sentences.' LA Times

Bran's Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother abandons her and joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her 'common-law stepfather' on Bourdon Farms - a plant nursery that doubles as a cover for a biker gang. She spends her days tending plants, slogging through high school and imagining what life could be if she had been born to a different family.

Then she meets Peter-a charming, troubled college student from the East Coast - who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of art. The two begin a seemingly doomed long-distance relationship as Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings. She knows how to survive, but now she must learn how to live.

'Zink is a comic writer par excellence.' New Yorker
'An extraordinary talent.' Daily Telegraph

The new novel from one of America's most original voices-a wild, blackly funny story of female emancipation and the journey to one's own utopia.