I would write a story about an obsessive shut-in who falls in love with a box of Tide because of the colors on the labeling. I’m not entirely demented, but I certainly don’t have a photographic memory. I wasn’t doing it consciously because I legitimately forgot that stuff. NZ: Occasionally I would search an old computer and realize that is what I was doing. Was that you? Did you have a considerable amount of material that you just purged?

TM: You mentioned the composer who burns his work.

There’s a reason people look at kittens on the internet. To me, as a serious writer, I thought there is no way greater to reach human beings other than to talk to them about something other than human beings. I really enjoyed zines then and it was clear to me that my favorite ones weren’t just about music, but also about something else. Anyway, we were playing this improvised music and that’s enough detail about the background of what was happening. Similar to Yuri Khanon - the Russian composer - currently destroying all of his work at the rate of one piece per week. Like writing entire novels and then throwing them away. He was into this improvised music and it drew me in because it related to the aesthetic of how I was writing then. I always played guitar and started playing electric. He was a real suburbanite who had an allowance as a child and worked stringing rackets when he was older, so he had records like you wouldn’t believe. I was very interested in music, but never had the money for records. So, in the spring of 1990 we moved to Hoboken. and I met somebody and we got married and moved to Richmond, Virginia, and then he got a job in New York. At the time I had moved to Washington, D.C.

The Millions: First, before we get into your new novel, I’m fascinated by and wanted to ask about the DIY zine you had about musicians and their pets. I spoke with her over the phone after she arrived in America for a book tour and discussed how Nicotine came to be, her relationship with Israeli writer Avner Shats, and so much more. If that weren’t enough she also published two early novellas - Sailing Toward the Sunset by Avner Shats and European Story for Avner Shats - in the collection Private Novelist on the same day as Nicotine. The Germany-based writer’s third novel, Nicotine, out this week, is easily the author’s best work. She released two of the best books in 20: The Wallcreeper and Mislaid, respectively. You might not have heard of the 52-year-old writer prior to 2014, but there’s a good chance that you recognize her name now. Nell Zink has been a writer for most of her life, in venues ranging from a DIY zine about punk musicians and their pets to German newspapers.

Private novelist nell zink