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The inscrutable sincerity of Nell Zink

By Lidija Haas

Discussed in this essay:

Private Novelist, by Nell Zink. Ecco. 336 pages. $15.99.

Nicotine, by Nell Zink. Ecco. 304 pages. $26.99.

Mislaid, by Nell Zink. Ecco. 256 pages. $26.99.

The Wallcreeper, by Nell Zink. Dorothy. 200 pages. $16.

“On average I hate all books,” Nell Zink wrote last year, in an early review of Purity, the latest novel by her friend and champion Jonathan Franzen. The article was a sort of stunt: Zink compared the book to A Little Princess and said she looked forward to reading the real reviews. Her jokes weren’t unthreatening, although Franzen,…

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’s most recent review for Harper’s Magazine, “Game Theories,” appeared in the June 2016 issue.

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