Greta and Valdin

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I have a jeweller friend who talks about the types of materials she likes to work with — primarily steel, copper and brass. She doesn’t use gold or precious stones. I think like that with words. I use the steel and copper and brass of language. They’re my materials and I love them and never tire of working with them. The poetry finalists “have pushed their craft to new limits”, added Saradha Koirala, the category’s convener of judges. “In a time of global instability, Aotearoa poets have reconnected to their sense of self, exploring identity and challenging our collective history.” So there’s a pervasive cuteness or playful charm, depending on your take, but there’s also variety, richness, a gratifyingly complicated set of relationships, a large and interesting cast of characters. The connections are tangled and numerous enough that we need the helpful cast list at the beginning. Heartbreaking, hilarious and completely beautiful; an unforgettable novel. Northern Hemisphere, you’re not ready for this!” —Nina Mingya Powles, author of Luminscent The characters might be slightly at odds with the world but Reilly loves them and the affection shows.It doesn’t take long to become invested in mum Beatrice’s secrets, Valdin’s longing for ex-boyfriend Xabi (who happens to be his uncle’s husband’s brother), Greta’s misdirected affection for Holly, brother Casper’s past scandals, nephew Tang’s newly discovered monogamy or trying to figure out how almost-cousin Cosmo, currently unaccounted for, features in all of this. Greta & Valdin is fresh, funny, tangled and brilliant. I can’t wait for someone to make the sitcom so I can keep Reilly’s characters in my life.

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 Valdinwill 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. This immensely charming ensemble piece is a debut novel by a New Zealand author. It's very funny, full of droll observations and one liners that had me reading lines out loud to my husband.This is such a sharply written book as well. The countless jabs at racism, classism, ableism, and more that are cleverly woven into an otherwise mundane paragraph are truly brilliant. I learned a lot about modern New Zealand society which I very much appreciated ("How long have you been in New Zealand? Have you heard about racism?"). 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. Greta & Valdin is fresh, funny, tangled and brilliant. I can’t wait for someone to make the sitcom so I can keep Reilly’s characters in my life.' —Hannah Tunnicliffe, Kete Books

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) Everyone looks at me. They look serious and warmly accepting of my culture. I can't even think of one karakia. I think of a school camp where we had to sing 'Thank you, Lord for giving us food', to the Superman theme tune. In a panic, I think whether it would be appropriate to sing a song by the Māori and Pasifika reggae band Herbs. Greta & Valdinis fresh, funny, tangled and brilliant. I can’t wait for someone to make the sitcom so I can keep Reilly’s characters in my life.' —Hannah Tunnicliffe, Kete Books Rebecca K Reilly(Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai)is a writer from Tāmaki Makaurau. She won the2019 Adam Foundation Prize. Greta and Valdin is her first book.The publisher says: “Reilly’s exploration of love, family, queerness, migration, karaoke, the generational reverberations of colonialism and the disturbing realisation that your parents have a past will have readers falling in love with Greta, Valdin, and all of the Vladisavljevics.” 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.

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. 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.The shortlist was also striking for the broad range of publishers – from established university presses to tiny independent initiatives, she said. It's all rather messy. The original title of the novel was Vines (it was under this title that author Rebecca K. Reilly (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai) won the 2019 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing). I can see why - the lives of the central characters and their families and lovers become fairly well tangled by the end of things, twining about each other in a well-watered but unpruned kind of way. I thought both of these scenes were breathtaking in their ability to absolutely nail a sense of not quite fitting - a sense of otherness that is par for the course for Māori but which I have never seen captured so well before in fiction. But also Reilly has managed to be really funny about it. I feel SEEN. But also amused. This is excellent. 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. I can't remember the last time I read a book that was as genuinely and uniquely funny as Greta & Valdin. But it's also so much more than that. Reilly's voice is wise and full of life, and her observations about queer love, heartbreak, and the complexities of family are poignant without ever succumbing to sentimentality. This is a wholly original, laugh-until-you-ugly-cry-on-the-subway debut." —Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

Rebecca K. Reilly appears at WORD Christchurch 2022 in three sessions: Mana Wāhine: Influence and craft, Humans of New Zealand, and the Foundation Pop-up Festival. Rebecca K. Reilly (at right) appears with Chloe Lane (left) and Sue Orr (middle) in WORD event, Humans of New Zealand. (Image supplied) Further reading This book follows an absolutely hilarious family as they try to get their lives together, both professional and personal, and we see more and more of their pasts revealed as the book goes on. The thing that stood out to me about this book was the complete joy of being queer, Maori, and Russian (and Jewish!). There is so much queerness and it is so normal in this family, literally everyone is queer and it's such a beautiful thing to see. I felt so warm inside reading the family dynamics, because while they are messy and imperfect, there is love there.

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I leave you with one quote of the endless number I highlighted while reading: "I don't really feel like anything these days, just a beautiful husk filled with opinions about globalism and a strong desire to go out for dinner."