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Avalon
A profound and singular story about a young woman searching for her place in the world, from one of America's most original voices--the irresistible story of one teenager's reckoning with society at large and her search for a personal utopia.
Bran's Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother 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.
And then she meets Peter, a beautiful, troubled, and charming train wreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings--attending disastrous dance recitals, house-sitting for strangers, and writing scripts for student films. She knows how to survive, but her happiness depends on learning to call the shots.
Exceedingly rich, ecstatically dark, and delivered with masterful humor, Avalon is a poignant portrait of a young woman who, against all odds, is determined to find her place in the world and find clarity in its remote corners.
Bran's Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother 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.
And then she meets Peter, a beautiful, troubled, and charming train wreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings--attending disastrous dance recitals, house-sitting for strangers, and writing scripts for student films. She knows how to survive, but her happiness depends on learning to call the shots.
Exceedingly rich, ecstatically dark, and delivered with masterful humor, Avalon is a poignant portrait of a young woman who, against all odds, is determined to find her place in the world and find clarity in its remote corners.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published May 24, 2022
97 people are currently reading
4044 people want to read
About the author
Nell Zink
15 books409 followersNell Zink was raised in rural Virginia, a setting she draws on in her second novel, Mislaid. She attended Stuart Hall School and the College of William and Mary. In 1993, while living in West Philadelphia, Zink founded a zine called Animal Review, which ran until 1997.
Zink has worked as a secretary at Colgate-Palmolive and as a technical writer in Tel Aviv. She moved to Germany in May 2000, completing a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Tübingen. Zink has been married twice, to US citizen Benjamin Alexander Burck and to Israeli composer and poet Zohar Eitan.
After 15 years writing fiction exclusively for a single pen pal, the Israeli postmodernist Avner Shats, Zink caught the attention of Jonathan Franzen. The two writers began a correspondence.
In early 2012, Zink sent Franzen her collected manuscripts. Franzen tried unsuccessfully to interest publishers in her 1998 novel. It was Franzen’s agent who ultimately negotiated a six-figure publishing deal for Zink’s Mislaid, a novel she has described as “agent bait”.
ZInk's debut, The Wallcreeper, was published by Dorothy, a publishing project in the US in 2014 and named one of 100 Notable Books of 2014 by The New York Times. Zink lives in Bad Belzig, Germany.
Zink has worked as a secretary at Colgate-Palmolive and as a technical writer in Tel Aviv. She moved to Germany in May 2000, completing a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Tübingen. Zink has been married twice, to US citizen Benjamin Alexander Burck and to Israeli composer and poet Zohar Eitan.
After 15 years writing fiction exclusively for a single pen pal, the Israeli postmodernist Avner Shats, Zink caught the attention of Jonathan Franzen. The two writers began a correspondence.
In early 2012, Zink sent Franzen her collected manuscripts. Franzen tried unsuccessfully to interest publishers in her 1998 novel. It was Franzen’s agent who ultimately negotiated a six-figure publishing deal for Zink’s Mislaid, a novel she has described as “agent bait”.
ZInk's debut, The Wallcreeper, was published by Dorothy, a publishing project in the US in 2014 and named one of 100 Notable Books of 2014 by The New York Times. Zink lives in Bad Belzig, Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
June 11, 2022
I feel angry I read the entire thing.
May 5, 2022
2,5
Zink is ridiculing intellectualism (whilst sometimes being pretty intellectualist herself) and pretentiousness in the person of Peter and his nonsensical theories. Some bits were funny, but others I didn’t understand and was just not interested in, and on the whole I found Peter rather annoying. But even though the main character Bran can’t follow his thoughts either (expressed by […]), she still falls in love with him. Strange.
Also, it looks like Zink makes stuff up as she goes along, especially in the first half, and as a reader you often have no idea where it will all lead to. It’s sometimes a bit silly: a dancer who can’t dance, a dance teacher who is blind, a film script about amoebe aliens. But luckily, there’s always Zink’s humor, which I really like, and about half way, it starts to get more interesting, the story made more sense and I got more involved in it and in the characters.
Not an overall success for me I’m afraid.
Thank you Penguin Random House US and Edelweiss for the ARC.
Zink is ridiculing intellectualism (whilst sometimes being pretty intellectualist herself) and pretentiousness in the person of Peter and his nonsensical theories. Some bits were funny, but others I didn’t understand and was just not interested in, and on the whole I found Peter rather annoying. But even though the main character Bran can’t follow his thoughts either (expressed by […]), she still falls in love with him. Strange.
Also, it looks like Zink makes stuff up as she goes along, especially in the first half, and as a reader you often have no idea where it will all lead to. It’s sometimes a bit silly: a dancer who can’t dance, a dance teacher who is blind, a film script about amoebe aliens. But luckily, there’s always Zink’s humor, which I really like, and about half way, it starts to get more interesting, the story made more sense and I got more involved in it and in the characters.
Not an overall success for me I’m afraid.
Thank you Penguin Random House US and Edelweiss for the ARC.
May 28, 2023
This shallow world makes thinking seem deeper.
Amazing. A coming-of-age novel on the surface, but underneath is something medieval or fantastic. Really dives into the deep peasant mindset/feudal conditions of California. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long, long time. Really all I can say against it is that John Dolan did it first, and without the warmth. Worth your time if you love shitty fantasy novels but struggle with contemporary literature, or if you love shitty lit novels but struggle with fantasy.
Amazing. A coming-of-age novel on the surface, but underneath is something medieval or fantastic. Really dives into the deep peasant mindset/feudal conditions of California. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long, long time. Really all I can say against it is that John Dolan did it first, and without the warmth. Worth your time if you love shitty fantasy novels but struggle with contemporary literature, or if you love shitty lit novels but struggle with fantasy.
December 20, 2022
Bran's Southern Californian upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her "common-law stepfather" on Bourdon Farm - 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 like if she had been born into a different family. And then she meets Peter, a beautiful and charming trainwreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for the meaning in her own surroundings.
It did take me a little while to get into this book. A young woman is trying to overcome her new life in Southern California. she is being brought up on a plant farm which is basically a cover a biker gang. This book certainly taxed my brain. The story is told in an intellectual way. But it could be confusing. Bran is trying to find herself and Peter thinks he knows it all. There is some humour to this story. I have mixed feelings after reading this book.
I would like to thank #NetGalley #FaberandFaber and the author #NellZink for my ARC of #Avalon in exchange for an honest review.
It did take me a little while to get into this book. A young woman is trying to overcome her new life in Southern California. she is being brought up on a plant farm which is basically a cover a biker gang. This book certainly taxed my brain. The story is told in an intellectual way. But it could be confusing. Bran is trying to find herself and Peter thinks he knows it all. There is some humour to this story. I have mixed feelings after reading this book.
I would like to thank #NetGalley #FaberandFaber and the author #NellZink for my ARC of #Avalon in exchange for an honest review.
July 5, 2022
This book should not have been published. Weren’t there any pre publication readers who could see through pedantic Peter? If he was such an intellectual what was he doing showing off his philosophical and scholarly intelligence to Bran, the main character who, devoid of parents, was living with a bunch of bikers and doing heavy horticultural work. I wouldn’t even want to guess how many times the word “fascist” was used (probably close to 100). The whole story was just incredibly irritating. It was in my library’s’ “new and noteworthy” bin with a waiting list, so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s book description on goodreads is so deceptive, it’s author is an amazing salesman. If only the description were accurate.
May 14, 2025
I get that people want realist fiction, that they write it and read it and enjoy it. And that's fine. If someone wants to spend their free time writing or reading about other people doing people stuff then whatever, it isn't hurting anyone.
I get that the same is true with modern updates to fairytales.
What I don't get is why these kinds of fiction have to be so phenomenally - almost willfully - boring.
It’s wild, because Zink is a skilled and talented writer. Clearly a lesser writer would not have been able to write this book, which makes it bad in a very specific way. In some ways, bad books are easier to learn from than great books. It’s easier to ask and answer: 'how does this fail' than 'how is this (great book) great'.
The biggest flaw that stands out here is how low stakes everything is. Characters are introduced and described in detail, events happen, emotions are felt, but only a tiny fraction of these have any importance down the line. The reader is given detail after detail, character after character, event after event but, on seeing that these have little importance outside of the page on which they occur, the reader forgets them. As this happens, they learn that there is little point in paying attention to new things that happen, new characters that come on stage, and the new emotions the characters have, as the effort spent to remember these never seems to pay off down the line.
Most works of fiction function best like buildings, where each element serves to build the greater structure, to hold up something else or comes together to form up a larger part of the whole. ‘Avalon’ feels like hundreds of (‘beautifully-painted’) bricks, but these bricks are all just sitting out in a single layer in a field. Sure, each brink is pretty, but it doesn’t make anything. You can’t stand or live in it, only look at it from afar.
In the second half of the book the only characters that really have any importance are Branny and Peter, so why should the reader care about Branny’s house sitting subplot, or even the whole screenwriter subplot? The whole end purpose of the screenwriting seems to be to get Branny excited about going to the Party at the writer’s house, but that could have happened whether or not she was a screenwriter or not.
The screenplays that Branny writes, or at least the ones that are described, are fine, but don’t seem to have any connection to the overall themes or plots of the book. The characters’ persistent reliance on calling things ‘fascist’ seems like there could, or should, be some political message, or at least idea, behind it. In the end, it seems to boil down to just ‘Undergrads like to call things fascist’ which is so far from novel or compelling or insightful that, rather than parody of novice intellectuals, it just feels like self-parody.
I get that the same is true with modern updates to fairytales.
What I don't get is why these kinds of fiction have to be so phenomenally - almost willfully - boring.
It’s wild, because Zink is a skilled and talented writer. Clearly a lesser writer would not have been able to write this book, which makes it bad in a very specific way. In some ways, bad books are easier to learn from than great books. It’s easier to ask and answer: 'how does this fail' than 'how is this (great book) great'.
The biggest flaw that stands out here is how low stakes everything is. Characters are introduced and described in detail, events happen, emotions are felt, but only a tiny fraction of these have any importance down the line. The reader is given detail after detail, character after character, event after event but, on seeing that these have little importance outside of the page on which they occur, the reader forgets them. As this happens, they learn that there is little point in paying attention to new things that happen, new characters that come on stage, and the new emotions the characters have, as the effort spent to remember these never seems to pay off down the line.
Most works of fiction function best like buildings, where each element serves to build the greater structure, to hold up something else or comes together to form up a larger part of the whole. ‘Avalon’ feels like hundreds of (‘beautifully-painted’) bricks, but these bricks are all just sitting out in a single layer in a field. Sure, each brink is pretty, but it doesn’t make anything. You can’t stand or live in it, only look at it from afar.
In the second half of the book the only characters that really have any importance are Branny and Peter, so why should the reader care about Branny’s house sitting subplot, or even the whole screenwriter subplot? The whole end purpose of the screenwriting seems to be to get Branny excited about going to the Party at the writer’s house, but that could have happened whether or not she was a screenwriter or not.
The screenplays that Branny writes, or at least the ones that are described, are fine, but don’t seem to have any connection to the overall themes or plots of the book. The characters’ persistent reliance on calling things ‘fascist’ seems like there could, or should, be some political message, or at least idea, behind it. In the end, it seems to boil down to just ‘Undergrads like to call things fascist’ which is so far from novel or compelling or insightful that, rather than parody of novice intellectuals, it just feels like self-parody.
March 9, 2023
The author wrote the review for me. "I had never read a book so rigorous and mundane-the parts I understood, at least, meaning maybe one sentence in twenty."
This book was terrible. I can't tell you what it was about because it seemed to be about nothing. Pseudo-intellectual drivel. Pass on this one.
This book was terrible. I can't tell you what it was about because it seemed to be about nothing. Pseudo-intellectual drivel. Pass on this one.
December 31, 2022
Read this because it was listed as a top 100 read by the NY Times. My guess is they didn't read it. It read like a mash up of 3-4 different stories pulled into one to meet a deadline. Similar to the characters within it.
June 12, 2022
Is this intellectual humor, satire, or awkward post-modern love story?
There's a niche for this novel; I'm not sure what it is, only that I'm not the audience for this work.
There's a niche for this novel; I'm not sure what it is, only that I'm not the audience for this work.
October 22, 2022
I still don’t really know what this was? But I found it bizarre and hilarious?
November 16, 2021
Honestly I hope this is good but did not love Mislaid and the others (Nicotine was ok) they always feel like a drafts of a novel from an overrated author ("shock value" and having bigoted charachters does not equate to art/ college-age poets think that). And it don't make you funny. Heard this was coming and it seems to be going in the same or a similar direction. Maybe growing up in the south has not helped my opinion of this author. That can happen. Will GLADLY adjust/change my rating if wrong . But here;s another nell zink look at me be FRINGE premise.
March 29, 2022
A scintillating mash-up of Cinderella and The Breakfast Club, filtered through Baudrillard, Lacan, and Arthurian legends. I'm still not sure how it ended (in the opening chapter.)
December 14, 2022
this book took itself too seriously for what it was... found it sooo boring.
June 30, 2025
My sister bought me this book thinking it was about Avalon NJ. It was not about that
July 12, 2022
A super intellectual mind, Zink writes with finesse about a teen abandoned on a sketchy farm in Southern California.
I always appreciate Zink's candor mixed with intelligence and enjoy googling references from philosophy to sociology.
If you have an affinity for California and want a book without any major tragedies, this is a well done coming of age story.
I always appreciate Zink's candor mixed with intelligence and enjoy googling references from philosophy to sociology.
If you have an affinity for California and want a book without any major tragedies, this is a well done coming of age story.
November 26, 2023
what a silly billy novel!
Read
February 24, 2025Soort van The Idiot (Elif Batuman), maar dat alles dan nog vreemder is.
March 15, 2023
Maybe this deserves three stars and it is my inability to relate to the characters that is holding me back. It definitely reads quickly and well, it is fast paced with little reflection - things happen quickly and the book moves apace. The story centers around Bran, a teenager growing up in a difficult family/lack of situation in Southern CA. Her group of friends are the former high school literary magazine crew with a new college friend thrown in the mix. It is interesting to see how the relationships among the group change and evolve as they meet new people and move on to new things, but I didn't get it overall, and I definitely didn't get any of the characters.
January 31, 2023
Writing delayed reviews of the books I read this month as part of my end-of-January housekeeping. Here is my review of Avalon, which, interestingly, was a gift from Mar's dad for Hanukkah. Enjoy!
This was a weird, fun book with an almost comically extensive vocab list. Simultaneously exuding and openly mocking intellectualism from the POV of earnest orphan Bran (who is essentially an indentured servant at a plant nursery that is a front for a biker gang) and her quirky group of friends. It follows them from high school through college as their lives separate and Bran figures out her place in the world.
Despite being technically realistic fiction, Zink assembles a world that fairly loosely adheres to the reality we are familiar with. All the events and characters are technically possible and built from familiar pieces, but the way everything comes together is somewhat bizarre and improbable. She puts the emphasis on fiction and has a lot of fun with what it can do without building a world from scratch, but rather by rearranging the one she knows into gravity-defying configurations. The way that characters communicate, interact, and seemingly process their emotions is consistently off in a way that the reader can barely put a finger on.
It seems from reading other reviews like everybody either loves or hates Nell Zink. I think I like her, but did find it all a little ridiculous, especially the obviously intentional inaccessibility of the language. I think that’s kind of the point. She wants you to be sitting with her book and a dictionary side by side and feeling like a little bit of an idiot. Or maybe I am just a little bit of an idiot. Overall I needed a bit to process my feelings but I wanted to reread it as soon as I finished it so it gets 4 stars. Also I’m just a sucker for stories about the beauty of California.
This was a weird, fun book with an almost comically extensive vocab list. Simultaneously exuding and openly mocking intellectualism from the POV of earnest orphan Bran (who is essentially an indentured servant at a plant nursery that is a front for a biker gang) and her quirky group of friends. It follows them from high school through college as their lives separate and Bran figures out her place in the world.
Despite being technically realistic fiction, Zink assembles a world that fairly loosely adheres to the reality we are familiar with. All the events and characters are technically possible and built from familiar pieces, but the way everything comes together is somewhat bizarre and improbable. She puts the emphasis on fiction and has a lot of fun with what it can do without building a world from scratch, but rather by rearranging the one she knows into gravity-defying configurations. The way that characters communicate, interact, and seemingly process their emotions is consistently off in a way that the reader can barely put a finger on.
It seems from reading other reviews like everybody either loves or hates Nell Zink. I think I like her, but did find it all a little ridiculous, especially the obviously intentional inaccessibility of the language. I think that’s kind of the point. She wants you to be sitting with her book and a dictionary side by side and feeling like a little bit of an idiot. Or maybe I am just a little bit of an idiot. Overall I needed a bit to process my feelings but I wanted to reread it as soon as I finished it so it gets 4 stars. Also I’m just a sucker for stories about the beauty of California.
December 31, 2022
This book gives off a very specific vibe, and that vibe is in fact John Green-esque, absurdist coming-of-age, which I didn’t hate but didn’t really do much for me either. Honestly I think this could have benefitted from being a little more earnest and dramatic than it was; it kind of petered off in the end. Lots of interesting elements here, but we never delved into as much of them as I wanted. A breezy read though — love a 200-pager!
January 13, 2023
3.5 upped to 4
My rating of this book was a bit of rollercoaster as I found some parts brilliant, some so-and-so and some a bit dull.
There's humour, there's satire of high brow intellectualism and alternate lifestyle. There's an unsefferable bore like Peter and a very confused girl like Bran.
I think that the author is a good storyteller and I'm wondering about the next story.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
My rating of this book was a bit of rollercoaster as I found some parts brilliant, some so-and-so and some a bit dull.
There's humour, there's satire of high brow intellectualism and alternate lifestyle. There's an unsefferable bore like Peter and a very confused girl like Bran.
I think that the author is a good storyteller and I'm wondering about the next story.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
May 31, 2023
One of the strangest books I’ve ever read. I only kept reading because it’s based in Torrance, California where I live. Not much about the area is accurate - palos verdes is not a mountain, la fresa is a name printed on maps only, and no one calls “west 190th” west 190th. The best part was the ending and I would like to know what happens next! Lol
September 4, 2022
The writing in the first couple of pages was so off putting that I gave up rather than wasting any more of my time. I seem to be gettIng ruthless in my old age! I ams simply not prepared to make the effort when the initial reward is so slight.
November 12, 2022
Truly weird as hell, which is what I dutifully come seeking from Nell Zink, whose novels I will always read. Much like Joy Williams, her universes resemble the current universe, but everything is askew; everybody is a little off in such a bewildering and intoxicating way.
September 21, 2023
Shut the fuck up
DNF!!!
DNF!!!
September 7, 2023
hmm maybe more like 3.5/5. super funny (laughed out loud on multiple occasions) but kind of mean -- maybe i'm getting soft in my old age. most obviously similar to the idiot (one of my all time faves), though not as good. more sincere than mislaid but also less deep? if it seems like i'm being harsh on the book it's probably because i'm also 19 and dumb so i feel a little embarrassed whenever zink is able to capture what that's like -- she's an extremely talented writer for sure and i definitely enjoyed the book.
August 2, 2024
Bought knowing nothing of the author nor the book. Reading the summary at the book store sold me on it, thinking it would be a fun journey. Normally I like "day-in-the-life-of" stories, but this one was kind of pretentious and boring. Little was done to make any character likable or show much growth.
December 19, 2022
This is a very unusual novel with a text that’s as intellectual as its characters and not interested in talking down to readers. It won’t be for everyone but I really enjoyed it. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
August 11, 2022
I really liked the main character. And yet.
November 11, 2022
Weird, as all her books are. I like ‘em, this one as much as any of them, I think.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews