Overview

‘Nell Zink is a writer of extraordinary talent and range. Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know.' Jonathan Franzen Virginia, 1966. The motionless deeps of the lake outside Stillwater College are being ruffled. Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, is determinedly fondling Peggy, an ingénue freshman with literary pretensions, in his canoe. So begins a long affair but the two are mismatched from the start. The story that follows rocks the boat in every sense. Nell Zink's hugely entertaining, totally unique Mislaid explodes the nuclear family and topples every foundation of identity – black and white, gay and straight, “normal” and very very strange…

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9780008100551

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Reviews

'Nell Zink is a writer of extraordinary talent and range. Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know. You might not want to believe this, but her sentences and stories are so strong and convincing that you'll have no choice.' Jonathan Franzen 'Nell Zink might be the best living writer you haven't heard of yet.' Emily Gould, author of FRIENDSHIP 'One of the most exciting debut novels that will be published this year' Guardian Praise for The Wallcreeper: 'The most exciting debut novel I've read recently is THE WALLCREEPER, Nell Zink's mordantly hilarious story of sex, drugs, and birdwatching.' Joanna Walsh, Guardian 'Heady and rambunctious ... Wake up, this book says: in its plot lines, in its humour, in its philosophical underpinnings and political agenda. I'll pay it the highest compliment it knows - this book is a wild thing.' New York Times Book Review 'THE WALLCREEPER is the best book of 2014 ... Every page is an angular masterpiece' Dazed 'Peppered with witty one-liners, Zink's portrayal of a young American couple that moves to Europe is strange, hilarious, and utterly captivating.' Harpers Bazaar 'An instrument of delight, an offering of kinship. Like its namesake, THE WALLCREEPER is fleet, stealthy and beautiful. It's a lifer indeed.' New York Times

'Nell Zink is a writer of extraordinary talent and range. Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know. You might not want to believe this, but her sentences and stories are so strong and convincing that you'll have no choice' Jonathan Franzen 'One of the most exciting debut novels that will be published this year' Guardian 'Here is a writer seemingly hatched in a state of readiness, like Athena popping out of Zeus's skull, whose words are so unfussily wise, so wryly confident, you can't believe she hasn't written 50 books before... A fiercely original book, effortlessly readable and clever; the author handles her characters with the fond detachment of an Olympic god. Zink is a rare talent. Thank goodness we have finally noticed' Esquire 'A hip, hilarious and unexpectedly moving novel ... Zink has a genius for making the bizarre seem natural... makes for one of the most satisfying happy endings in recent fiction' Wall Street Journal 'The novel's charm and intelligence run deep. It's a provocative masquerade with heart, not just an exercise in role reversals, reminding us that the gaps and cracks between our insides and our outsides are the spaces where our spirits live' New York Times Book Review 'Zink's capacity for inventions is immense... [Mislaid] zips along with a giddy, lunatic momentum. It's perverse wackiness is irresistible; unlike just about everything engineered to make you laugh out loud, Zink's novel actually does, over and over again... She knows how to let her freak flag fly' Bookforum 'A startlingly original novel about the dissolution of an eccentric American family' Harper's Bazaar 'A high comedy of racial identity...Zink is a comic writer par excellence' New Yorker 'Mislaid is a sprawling multi-generational saga of a Southern family that is as absurd and hilarious as it is tragic and seeing' VanityFair.com

'Mislaid is that oft-discussed, rarely spotted phenomenon - a Great American Novel. It catapults Zink straight into the company of not only Franzen, but also Donna Tartt and Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and John Irving. Zink takes her big-name predecessors in her stride and goes that bit weirder ... An extraordinary talent' Daily Telegraph 'One of the most exciting debut novels that will be published this year' Guardian 'A bold new take on the classic mistaken identity plot ... Crazy as it is, Mislaid is also an ambitious and tightly plotted novel, a welcome successor to her dazzling debut The Wallcreeper ... Her novels are two of the most audacious and exciting I've read in a long time' Independent 'Delicious ... Franzen might be right on this writer: Zink has written two books both worth talking about in the best salons in town, which will unsettle them in turn.' Independent on Sunday 'Zink appears to have sprung fully-formed on to the page, her narrative voice laconic and scalpel-sharp, and often shockingly funny in its dry asides and understatements ... Mislaid marks the arrival of an unusual and original talent, one fearless in her approach to language and subject. Where she goes next is anyone's guess, but it will surely defy expectations' Observer 'Happily for the reader, the hype is matched by the quality and originality of Zink's writing ... Direct, provocative and self-knowing... Things are never as they seem in Mislaid, a unique romp of a book that takes centuries' worth of confines and stereotypes and turns them inside out' Irish Times 'The novel's charm and intelligence run deep. It's a provocative masquerade with heart, not just an exercise in role reversals, reminding us that the gaps and cracks between our insides and our outsides are the spaces where our spirits live' New York Times Book Review 'A high comedy of racial identity ... Zink is a comic writer par excellence' New Yorker

Author Information

Nell Zink has worked in the construction, pharmaceutical, and software industries, and is now a translator living in Germany. As a writer, Zink founded an indie rock fanzine in the '90s, and published short pieces in a variety of outlets. She is the author of the novels The Wallcreeper and Mislaid.

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