276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Greta and Valdin

£5.495£10.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

The book follows the lives and loves of Greta and Valdin, alternating chapters between them as they try to navigate aforementioned crushes, and pining, but also worrying about their careers, and their relationships with other members of their family. To be honest, I didn't think I particularly liked either of them in the opening chapters but by the end I was cheering them both on as they try to find the stability, groundedness, and love that they both need to be happy. 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, author of Our Wives Under the Sea From the moment I first read Pip Adam I found her work incredibly exciting. I love that she doesn’t seem to care about flirting with the reader. I’m a writer who definitely flirts with the reader. Pip is too cool to do that. I want to be that cool but I never will be. I can’t wait to read her new novel this year. 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.

Speaking of, “ An Open Letter to the Internet“ is a personal essay that contributed most to Hobart editor Elizabeth Ellen’s infamy. She describes a tension many writers fall into, the mode of ‘essayist’ overshadowing their fiction and/or poetry aspirations. Often the best essay writers fall into the form; despite Ellen’s efforts to evade non-fiction she is spurred on by the necessity to comment, providing a view she can’t see anyone else doing. In her Open Letter, she scrutinised allegationsagainst novelist Tao Lin by an ex-girlfriend he dated in her teens, when he was in his early twenties; Ellen refusedto accept the all-too-common mode of online degradation, and wrote, “[i]f this is anyone’s idea of gaining female empowerment, count me out. If celebrating the ruining of another person’s life is cause for celebration, I don’t want any part of it.” It’s very easy for young people to fall into this idealistic trap, being influenced by social justice rules in shallow ways fuelling misplaced rage. I’ve done it, you’ve probably done it—perception is reality—and it’s hard and confusing to figure out exactly what you think or believe, or how to behave, how to react to such situations or run away. Everything reads and sounds the same…You’ll never read a story about a pro-lifer or someone unvaccinated”Delightful, funny, wonderful . . . I laughed my way through this book. An incredible novel from a young new writer. I heartily recommend it to everybody.' —Claire Mabey, Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan Rebecca K Reilly’s début novel, Greta and Valdin, is an exception to this rule in the best way. Rather than read like a self-contained narrative, the story feels almost like a segment of two lives. Events that took place before the novel begins are relayed through the two main characters and subtly interwoven into their mutual concern for each other.

Meanwhile, Greta’s new girlfriend, Ell, feels guilty Greta invited her to meet her parents – she can’t reciprocate. Greta says she doesn’t want anything anymore. She’s reduced to a “beautiful husk filled with opinions about globalism and a strong desire to go out for dinner”.Ansa Khan Khattak, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding New Zealand from Martha Perotto-Wills at The Bent Agency. North American rights sold to Amy Guay at Avid Reader Press. Hutchinson Heinemann will publish in the UK in early 2024. These are much more serious moral transgressions than disagreeing with a critic engaging in un-PC ad hominem – ie, last year’s case of Nicholas Reid’s poorly thought-out gripe with essa may ranapiri Greta and Valdin follows the titular siblings, Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic (yes I did misspell that many times even with the book open beside me) as they navigate social and personal issues which are all too relatable for the audience in a world deeply familiar to New Zealand readers. Gallic read the book and loved it. Then my agent sold it to them. Beyond that I don’t know how it happened!

Valdin is still 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 only seems 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.Some would argue the novel requires a more adept suspension of disbelief—it’s somewhat utopian, so my critiques based in a material reality are moot—but Greta and Valdin’s world is unfortunately very real, I live in it, surrounded by bohemian layabouts, queer relatives working in media; the friends of mine who do have jobs don’t have ones I would describe as sensible or normal. With its beautiful prose and authentic frankness about the issues faced by today’s youth, Greta and Valdin is a must-read, and I’m sure Rebecca K Reilly’s future releases are awaited with bated breath. 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. But this, too, is a banal debate. I’m critiquing context and writers deserve more close reading and aesthetic analysis. But if they weren’t so concerned with policing the moral integrity of their peers—and reviewers—then this discussion would be completely moot, not just cliché. With Rebecca’s book, it had such an ebullient nature and was an utter joy to read. So funny and fun, and loving.

Literature is a hard game. It’s hard to write, it’s hard to get published. What keeps you going as a writer?I laughed, I cried, I cheered with Greta and Valdin. This is a novel that tastes like life." —Margaux Vialleron, author of The Yellow Kitchen

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment