Greta and Valdin

Description

The modern world is too much for me. I feel like I'm George of the Jungle.' -Greta 'At the moment, for personal reasons, I don't like reading things about people being in love with each other.' -Valdin Valdin is still in love with his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who used to drive around Auckland in a ute but now drives around Buenos Aires in one. Greta is in love with her fellow English tutor Holly, who doesn't know how to pronounce Greta's surname, Vladisavljevic, properly. From their Auckland apartment, brother and sister must navigate the intricate paths of modern romance as well as weather the small storms of their eccentric Maori-Russian-Catalonian family. This beguiling and hilarious novel by Adam Foundation Prize winner Rebecca K Reilly owes as much to Shakespeare as it does to Tinder. Set in a world that is deeply familiar (but also a bit sexier and more stylish than the real one), Greta and Valdin will speak to anyone who has had their heart broken, or has decided that they don't want to be a physicist anymore, or has wondered about all of the things they don't know about their family. 'Greta and Valdin is a complete world. I was totally captivated. It is warm and funny, inventive and charming, with a genuine and earned tenderness at its heart.' -Kate Duignan, author of The New Ships and Breakwater

Rebecca K Reilly (Ngati Hine, Ngati Wai) is a writer from Tamaki Makaurau. She won the 2019 Adam Foundation Prize. Greta and Valdin, forthcoming with VUP in May 2021, is her first book.