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.

Nell Zink left Southern California for eastern Virginia in 1972, aged eight. After completing a B.A. in philosophy at the College of William and Mary, she worked mostly as a secretary, with stints in masonry, technical writing, and translating. Her books include The Wallcreeper, Mislaid, Private Novelist, Nicotine, and Doxology, and her writing has appeared in n+1, Granta, and Harper's Magazine.