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Greta and Valdin

Shortlisted for The Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024

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Greta and Valdin

By: Rebecca K Reilly
Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton, Gary Furlong, Jackson Bliss, Natalie Beran, Nico Evers-Swindell
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

ONE OF BBC'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2024

'Hilarious, touching and hotly sublime'
JULIA ARMFIELD

'Warm, witty and utterly idiosyncratic'
ALICE SLATER

'Generous and tender'
NEW YORK TIMES

Siblings Greta and Valdin have, perhaps, too much in common. They're flatmates, beholden to the same near-unpronounceable surname, and both make questionable choices when it comes to love.

Valdin is in love with his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who left the country because he thought he was making Valdin sad. Greta is in love with fellow English tutor Holly, who appears to be using her for admin support. But perhaps all is not lost. Valdin is coming to realize that he might not be so unlovable, and Greta, that she might be worth more than the papers she can mark.

Helping the siblings navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the tendency of their love interests to flee, is the Vladisavljevic family: Maori-Russian-Catalonian, and as passionate as they are eccentric.

Rebecca K Reilly's exploration of love, family, karaoke, and the generational reverberations of colonialism will make you laugh, cry, and fall for the whole Vladisavljevic bunch.


©2024 Rebecca K Reilly (P)2024 Penguin Audio

 Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Humorous Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction

Critic reviews

Reilly’s voice is delightfully confident . . . Greta & Valdin is a fantasy — specifically, one about the kind of quirky, progressive, dramatic-but-not-traumatic family everyone daydreams about. And for that reason I think lots of people will find it a total pleasure
'[A] funny, clever, emotionally intelligent novel . . . Very witty but also moving and full of great one-liners
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)
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 (Alice Slater)
The novel is most lovable when the family's dynamic is explored. You can't help wanting to pull up a chair when they gather around the dinner table... Reilly's warm, overflowing novel defies categorisation because its characters are too complex and multifaceted to be easily summed up... If this novel shows us anything, it's that love — of family, of romantic partners, of community — is most joyful when it's without limits
A huge hit when it was published in New Zealand, fingers crossed its considerable charms chime with an international audience – such success very much deserves repeating
Within the first few pages of GRETA & VALDIN, I was already struggling not to laugh aloud in my crowded office. I wanted to tap my colleagues on the shoulders and read lines to them, in the hopes they, too, would cherish Rebecca K. Reilly's little kernels of humor and truth
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 (Hera Lindsay Bird)
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 (Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta, authors of THE VIEW WAS EXHAUSTING)
An absolute delight … a gloriously picaresque celebration of messy, complicated love (Emma Hughes)
All stars
Most relevant
I loved the sparkling writing to start with. The characters were quirky, interesting and engaging. But then I realised that the author had little or no story to tell involving these characters. So it just became a series of vignettes, with increasingly quirky characters, doing nothing and getting nowhere. Kind of a Gen Z Beckett with queer elements.

Meandering story that goes nowhere & gets increasingly dull

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When I read the summary I thought this book would be a tale of discovery, self realisation and acceptance. There were many layers to this story; mixed heritage, sexual orientation and immigration to name a few but I felt the story didn't dig deep enough into these themes. There were moment when I did relate to Greta as she was navigating her bisexuality and comphet but I wanted more. The cast of voice actors were very talented and this did create an immersive listening experience. I just wanted more from the story

Disappointing

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