In the early 1990s, she edited an indie rock fanzine.

It flows with a narrative spin only the singular Zink could pull off - including both authentic and fictional versions of characters from Shats’s life and work such as the author herself.A fast-moving portrait of expat artists, authors, and academics on fellowships at the Villa Romana in Florence, European Story for Avner Shats centers on a trio of three indelible characters: an Israeli writer vaguely reminiscent of Shats, a German specialist in ancient lint, and a beautiful and fraudulent Russian performance artist.Demonstrating the hallmarks of Zink’s unique talent, Private Novelist is an intimate look into this acclaimed novelist’s early work that will please her coterie of admirers and further burnish her lustrous reputation. She has worked in a variety of trades, including masonry and technical writing. Now, this tongue-in-cheek homage is available to Nell’s growing readership for the first time, accompanied by a second dazzling and imaginative work that breathes - at Shats’s request - the perfumed air of the Old Europe and stars a figure very much like Shats.Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats is Zink’s faux-translation of Shats’s 1998 novel Lashut El Hashkia ('Sailing Towards the Sunset'). The conceit behind the book is that Zink wrote for her. Unable to read his Hebrew, she was forced to start from scratch. Private Novelist by Nell Zink Ecco, 336 pp., 15.99 The Avner Shats in both titles is a real person, an Israeli author and poet. has echoes of the eccentric family stories of Ann Patchett and Miriam Toews, mixed with the offbeat humour of Miranda July.Years ago, Nell Zink resolved to write a book for her friend, the Israeli novelist Avner Shats, that would mirror his remarkable style.

The reader will root for Bran from the beginning and grow increasingly desperate for her to improve her situation as the book races along to its perfect, ambivalent end. What sets Avalon apart from Zink's previous books is that in addition to the whimsical plot turns and sharp social commentary, she has managed to create a hugely sympathetic and believable heroine in Bran. From the brilliant and incisive author of Mislaid-'a writer of extraordinary talent and range' (Jonathan Franzen) whose 'capacity for inventions is immense' (BookForum)-comes a new collection of her earliest work: two wildly funny novellas (Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats and E. The book is full of biting one-liners on society at large, on everything from class to gender to race. A black comedy of female emancipation in contemporary California, it's the most droll and unsentimental orphan tale you'll read. Zink's wacky storylines are typically held together by a wry authorial voice and uncommon descriptive power. The American author Nell Zink has made a name for herself as a writer of intelligent, irreverent novels that seek to provoke and satirise contemporary society. She has worked in a variety of trades, including masonry and technical writing.