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    Greta & Valdin: A Novel
    Greta & Valdin: A Novel
    Greta & Valdin: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Greta & Valdin: A Novel

    Written by Rebecca K Reilly

    Narrated by Natalie Beran, Jackson Bliss, Eilidh Beaton and

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    About this audiobook

    A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

    “A heartfelt portrait of a complex family.” —People • “Laugh-out-loud-funny.” —Harper’s Bazaar • “Quintessential rom-com meets the delicious family sprawl of a Russian classic.” —Vanity Fair

    The “brilliant” (Daily Mail, London) bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and family drama, all while flailing their way to love—for fans of Schitt’s Creek and Sally Rooney’s Normal People.

    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.

    Filled with “kernels of humor and truth” (Elle) 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.

    Editor's Note

    Comedy of errors…

    Greta and Valdin — queer siblings and flatmates in Auckland — grapple with relationship and career woes, made all the more messy by their Russian-Māori family’s antics. A comedy of errors infused with the familiar hallmarks of 20-something life, “Greta & Valdin” is equal parts hilarious, moving, and relatable.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateFeb 6, 2024
    ISBN9781797170503
    Author

    Rebecca K Reilly

    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.

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    Reviews for Greta & Valdin

    4/5

    66 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I like that they had many characters reading however the story was very long and I wasn’t able to connect with it.
    • 3/5
      Well-written and held my interest. Narration was pretty well done. I think it was the right choice to use different voice actors for all the various narrators in the book. I appreciated that while social issues were discussed/experienced, I didn’t feel like anyone’s agenda was getting shoved down my throat. I was able to better understand the perspectives of people really different from me without feeling like my own experiences/perspective were made “less-than”. Five huge stars to the writing and performance of El’s chapter near the end of the book. That one had me cracking up!
    • 3/5
      It was funny and cute and sad. But I liked valdin parts better than his sisters. It’s not much of a plot but more of vibes to me!
    • 4/5
      The family interactions were interesting. Dialog was crisp and engaging. Had some difficulty understanding the reader’s accent, but it was appropriate for the book.