Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

‘Delightfully confident . . . a total pleasure’ TIMES

‘Warm, witty and utterly idiosyncratic’ ALICE SLATER

‘Hilarious, touching and hotly sublime’ JULIA ARMFIELD

‘Lovable and joyful’ NEW YORK TIMES
A BROTHER. A SISTER. A LOT OF EMOTION IN ONE APARTMENT.
This is the story of Greta and Valdin: twenty-something brother and sister with a near-unpronounceable surname, a sprawling Maori-Russian-Catalonian family and questionable taste in partners.
While Valdin can’t seem to get over his ex-boyfriend who fled the country, Greta has an unrequited crush on fellow English tutor Holly, who uses her for admin support. But all hope is not lost for these lovelorn siblings. Through the misadventures and mess of modern adulthood, at least they still have each other – unless drama gets in the way.
From bad dates to family feuds and embarrassing karaoke nights, this acclaimed bestseller from New Zealand is a fresh, heartwarming and hilarious story about the trials and tribulations of love in its many forms.

Publisher Review

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) A big fat slice of joyful queer family life, peppered with messy breakups, bad dates and terrible decisions. You're gonna fall in love with the warm, witty and utterly idiosyncratic Greta & Valdin 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 & Zooey, but gay. I want the whole thing as a lower back tattoo GRETA AND 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 An absolute delight ... a gloriously picaresque celebration of messy, complicated love I laughed, I cried, I cheered with Greta and Valdin. This is a novel that tastes like life 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 As Greta and Valdin come into their own-helped by, and helping, the many weirdos in their lives-readers can root for only one outcome: 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. Say hello to your new favorite fictional family. * Kirkus Reviews * THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLE! I can't remember the last time I read something that was so genuinely and uniquely funny. Thank YOU for sending this wonderful book my way. I look forward to talking about it with everyone I know! I can't remember the last time I read a book that was as genuinely and uniquely funny as GRETA AND 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