Excerpt from The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"That's it," Stephen said. "You see anything smaller? You see any worms going up the fish ladder? Or even a young fish? Fish go where the current is strongest. Most of them don't find the ladders, and on their way back down, they get mangled."

"I see," I said.

"I'm not sure you do," he said. "People regard these bodies of water as rivers because they're damp underfoot, but they have nothing to do with rivers!"

"All right!" I said. "I get the point!"


Birke was printing up posters one at a time on the agency's gigantic photo printer, not sure what to do with them.

Stephen had definite notions. Trumpeting the message of defiance from bus shelters on main roads in every town along the Rhine from Basel to Rotterdam—that's where the posters belonged. It would just take a little money, money that he and Birke would be happy to raise for her boss's new charitable foundation, Global Rivers Alliance.

His first stop would be the bird-related organizations where he was a member. "They're all loaded federal retirees," he explained, "and it's not like they need new optics every year."

"But they're geeks, and Birke's campaign is with-it and happening."

"That's not true," he said. "The campaign is styled to look cool, but de facto the only people willing to espouse unpopular positions are geeks. It's stealth geekdom."

I recalled that Stephen's first appraisal of Birke had included the word mange.

Excerpted from The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink. Copyright © 2014 by Nell Zink. Excerpted by permission of Dorothy, a publishing project. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.