Greta & Valdin

A Novel

By: Rebecca K Reilly

Narrated by: Natalie Beran, Jackson Bliss, Eilidh Beaton, Nico Evers-Swindell, Gary Furlong

A New York Times Editors’ Choice • “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

An irresistible, “generous, [and] tender” (The New York Times) international 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.

©2021 Rebecca K Reilly (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Comfort read

I can see myself listening to this again in a couple years, it's very comforting. It reminded me that parents are their own people, and that my own troubles and joys can be personally felt, as well as shared, without me losing anything - I may even gain something by taking risks like being vulnerable, in love, in anger, even in confusion.

strange narrating choices

I listened to the audio version of “Greta & Valdin” narrated by Natalie Beran, Jackson Bliss, Eilidh Beaton, Nico Evers-Swindell, and Gary Furlong. From the start I just wanted to listen to these two ridiculously self-involved, insecure, lonely, searching siblings. To add to the fun, both are queer and in search of love. Each chapter is narrated by one of the siblings, and I loved them both. Valdin’s parts were snarky and cleverly written. Greta tries to write some formulaic gauge of the compatibility of her lovers. It was fun listening to these 20-somethings.

They live in Auckland, New Zealand, and the accents are all the same. One narrator gave a shot at a quasi-Eastern European accent. One tried a Scottish. But seriously, I had no idea that there were that many narrators. I thought there was one male and one female, and they had no former Eastern-European Accent. I think Greta was in her teens when they moved, but I would still expect some sort of an accent.

Once I got over the Aussie/British accents, and just listened, I started to really care about these insecure siblings. Their whole family is eccentric, almost all gay. The family drama is like a soap opera, one that is irresistible!

This is billed as a great book for “fans of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’.” Author Rebecca K. Reilly used the silliness of “Schitt’s Creek” and Rooney’s brooding outlook of young adults. She upped the “Schitt’s Creek” antics with her international flair of characters.

I recommend this as a palate cleanser, because it defies genres and is just plain fun.

favorite book i read this year

i can’t say what it is exactly about this book, maybe the way the humanity really came through in the characters, maybe the way the family is tied together in their phases of life. but it really got to my heart and did something that made me like hearing my own thoughts more.

Strangers and Lovers

A man and his sister learn what acceptance and love mean in their lives. Very enjoyable.

Kind of pointless

It felt like there was never really much to the plot. I kept waiting to figure out what it was about. But I guess it’s just about people and their lives. It was fine to listen to, but not very memorable. Also not sure why it was billed as “for fans of Schitt’s Creek” other than the fact that there are gay characters.

Clever and complicated.

I am giving this 3.5 stars rounded up as I suspect I would have enjoyed this more as a written book than as audio. There were many clever passages where I might have wanted to savor the phrasing, and it would have been much easier to keep track of the many, many characters and their intertwined relationships. The narration was a bit uneven and I had to adjust the speed as Valdin’s narrator spoke much more slowly than Greta’s, making the packing a bit jarring.
The characterizations of these contemporary 20-somethings feels very real. The book is chock-full of complicated relationships, evolving identities, and chronic anxieties, and I enjoyed spinning through them all, even if I did get a little lost along the way.

A must listen!

Hilarious and heartfelt story. Enjoyed the narration too! The family was the best part of the story.

Obsessed with this book

What a warm and sweet story. Highly recommend! Definitely one of those books I’ll listen to again.

Unbelievably incoherent

I’m about halfway finished and I have no idea what this book is about. I read reviews and information about it on the web and I still don’t know. Meanwhile audible won’t let me return it.

Extremely boring and goes nowhere

This book stood out to me in that there wasn’t really a well formed plot and the characters were truly not interesting at all. I would never recommend this book to anyone. The narrators were quite plain in their deliveries… I’ve read on some reviews that this book is “funny” so that did not come through with the audio version.