Avalon

De: Nell Zink

Narrado por: Justis Bolding

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • 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.

“Effulgent and clever.... What fun.”—The New York Times

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.

©2022 Nell Zink (P)2022 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture

“Effulgent and clever . . . A zone of mirth and meaning. What fun.”—Molly Young, The New York Times

“Well-observed, archly funny . . . Zink is a brilliant creator of character, setting and, for lack of a better word, vibe, and there is much pleasure to be found in the way she gets so many things so precisely right in this novel.”—Samantha Schoech, San Francisco Chronicle

“Avalon could be described as something of a Trojan horse: Its exterior has the appearance of a classic bildungsroman, but it contains a wry and biting critique of social mobility, labor exploitation, and creative work in Southern California . . . Zink’s California has some resonances with Joan Didion’s, chock-full of unsettling tensions that are difficult to unravel . . . [Zink paints] a rather authentic image of Southern California, one that elucidates how—not only there, but particularly there—financial and cultural capital have become so intertwined that someone without the former can’t reasonably have access to the latter . . . Perhaps the best way to understand the book is not as a portrait of the artist, but as a playbook for how to be one.”—Alana Pockros, The Nation

Needed a better ending.

Felt incomplete. It suddenly ended. I was surprised. I’ve liked everything else by Nell Zink but this just felt unfinished.