Knopf, Belletristik, Avalon (Englisch, Zink Nell, 2022)

B>b>A profound and singular story about a young woman searching for her place in the world, from one of America’s most original voices. /b>/b>br>br>;br>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.br>;br>Exceedingly rich, ecstatically dark, and delivered with masterful humor, Avalon is the irresistible story of one teenager’s reckoning with society at large and her search for a personal utopia.br>br>br>br>;.