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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Greta & Valdin
Reader Score
87%
87% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 7 reviews on
For fans of Schitt's Creek and Sally Rooney's Normal People, an irresistible and bighearted international bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the dramas big and small of their entangled, unconventional family, all while flailing their way to love. It's been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole Maaori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he's sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he's thrown back in his former lover's orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he's been trying to ignore--and the future he wants. Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush (or her possibly pointless master's thesis, or her pathetic academic salary...) get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won't stop intruding: her mother is keeping secrets, her nephew is having a gay crisis, and her brother has suddenly flown to South America without a word. Sharp, hilarious, and with an undeniable emotional momentum that builds to an exuberant conclusion, Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings' misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family. An acclaimed bestseller in New Zealand, Greta & Valdin is fresh, joyful, and alive with the possibility of love in its many mystifying forms.
Book Details
- Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
- Publish Date: Feb 6th, 2024
- Pages: 352
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.20in - 1.30in - 1.10lb
- EAN: 9781668028049
- Categories: • Family Life - Siblings• LGBTQ+ - Gay• Literary
About the Author
Reilly, Rebecca K.: - Rebecca K Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea), born 1991, is a Maaori novelist from Waitaakere, New Zealand. She has a BA (hons) in German and European studies from the University of Auckland and an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for 2019.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"Say hello to your new favorite fictional family. In the wrong hands [Greta & Valdin] could all be quirk for quirk's sake, or a half-baked hybrid of Schitt's Creek and The Royal Tenenbaums. But Reilly's humor is so riotously specific, and the many moments of true poignancy so gently infused with that same humor, that the Vladisavljevics seem like no one but themselves. [. . . ] If Reilly won't give us a sequel, then we can at least hope she won't make us wait too long for her next novel. --Kirkus Reviews (*starred*) "The laughs start early and go strong throughout this winsome story." --San Francisco Chronicle, Most Anticipated Reads of 2024 "Charming. . . This offbeat millennial comedy has universal appeal." --Publishers Weekly "Greta & Valdin is hilarious, touching and hotly sublime. The kind of novel that simultaneously makes me wish I were funnier and absolves me from the need to try--I'll never be as funny as Rebecca K Reilly (and that's OK)." --Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea "I can't remember the last time I read a book that was as genuinely and uniquely funny as Greta & Valdin. But it's also so much more than that. Reilly's voice is wise and full of life, and her observations about queer love, heartbreak, and the complexities of family are poignant without ever succumbing to sentimentality. This is a wholly original, laugh-until-you-ugly-cry-on-the-subway debut." --Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding "Hysterical, smart, and gay. I loved these characters so much. Greta & Valdin is an engrossing and charming read peppered with humour and insight. I can't wait to read more from Rebecca K Reilly." --Emily Austin, author of Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead "Greta & Valdin feels somehow totally new and beautifully familiar at the same time, like the kind of book you've been longing to read your whole life. Part comedy of manners, part family epic and all contained within a compulsive, charming clutch of pages we couldn't put down. Both ruthless and hilarious, offering hope and a wink for queer romantics everywhere." --Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, authors of The View Was Exhausting "Heartbreaking, hilarious and completely beautiful; an unforgettable novel. Northern Hemisphere, you're not ready for this!" --Nina Mingya Powles, author of Luminscent "Heartwarmingly tender and raucously funny, with the sophistication of a Shakespearean comedy, Greta & Valdin is replete with swoonworthy queer romance, hilariously eccentric sibling hijinks and mature reckoning with the complexities of family heritage. A deliciously perfectly bittersweet delight." --Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells "Greta & Valdin is one of the few genuinely funny books I've ever read. Totally delightful, psychologically astute, and dry as an astronaut's space cracker. It's like if Elif Batuman wrote Franny and Zooey, but gay. I want the whole thing as a lower back tattoo." --Hera Lindsay Bird, award-winning poet