The Private Novelist

From the letters of Nell Zink: two wildly funny novellas now available for the first time.Years ago, Nell Zink took on the challenge of reading a novel by a friend, the Hebrew-language writer Avner Shats. Unable to make sense of his work, she resolved to rewrite it for him from scratch. Now her tongue-in-cheek homage is available for the first time, accompanied by a dazzling and imaginative novella that ingeniously explores questions of art, language, and life.?Sailing Toward the Sunset by Avner Shats? is Zink's faux translation of Shats' 1998 novel Lashut el Ha-Shkiah (Sailing Toward the Sunset). A romantic thriller involving a Mossad agent, a mythical silkie, and fictionalized versions of characters from Shats' life, including the author herself, the work incorporates a number of previously unpublished short stories, plus Zink's heartrending memoir ?My Memoirs.?A fast-moving portrait of expat artists, authors, and academics on fellowships at a villa in Florence, ?European Story for Avner Shats? centers on a trio of indelible characters: a German specialist in ancient lint, an Israeli writer in an extended midlife crisis, 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 fiction?touching, sociable, and uproariously funny.