0571376940 
Hardback Avalon / Nell Zink.
Publication year: 2023
Format: Hardback
Publisher: London : Faber & Faber,
Resource type: Physical
ISBN: 9780571376940 (hbk.) :
Notes:
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.
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240 pages ; 22 cm
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Great reviews for this novel in the Guardian, NY times and elsewhere, so please don't let these thoughts of mine put you off, especially if you've enjoyed other novels of hers. As in all her books there are moments of great humour, sheer weirdness and brilliant writing. But I found Avalon annoyingly pretentious - a love story for pseudo intellectuals - peopled by unconvincing characters behaving incomprehensibly, and manipulated by the author in ways that often felt cold and uncaring to me.
23/02/23