Faber,224pp,£14.99
Avalon is the story of the life of Bran, from age ten to late teens. Bran lives with and works for her foster parents who run a nursery of exotic, caught the gist of Nell Zink's sixth novel succinctly. She said, Avalon is about ‘a girl with a weird job in a weird place whose writing talent is overlooked because of her circumstances, but who will eventually (probably) triumph, demonstrating that you can't judge a person by her credentials’. In other words, it is a weird coming-of-age story. But, she added, ‘you enter its world voluntarily and add your reading effort to Zink's writing effort with the idea that the sum of [her] energies will create a zone of mirth and meaning’. Sarah Ditum in the confirmed this; ‘with Zink, the only sure thing is that your expectations are going to be foiled.’ But, “if Avalon is ‘about’ anything, it's that craving for salvation, for a place of purity and healing like the title.” Ditum concluded that Avalon is a ‘hilarious, heart-breaking and of course – extremely weird novel.’ Sandra Newman, in the , described Zink as ‘one of America's most exciting writers.’ For her, Zink is ‘both a very satisfying and a frustrating writer. Her plots are shapeless but oddly propulsive. Her narrative style is a tissue of quips that strays into glibness, even in her best work.’ She recommended it; it is a ‘pleasure and will give you more that's genuinely new than 99% of books to be published this year.’
