Greta & Valdin: A Novel
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Written with striking prose and humor-filled dialogue, Reilly's debut novel explores the lives of neurodivergent, queer, multiethnic characters as they navigate love and family in modern Auckland. Siblings Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic are Maori on their mother, Betty's, side, and their father, Linsh, is an immigrant from Russia. Valdin had been in love with his older boyfriend, Xabi, until suffering from a mental health crisis that prompted him to quit his job as an astrophysicist and change his career. Now he works as a television presenter on a travel show. As Valdin considers his life without Xabi, he learns more about his father's story of leaving Russia. Greta is studying for her master's degree in comparative literature. She pines after a fellow tutor, Holly, while trying to decide what to do after graduate school. Reilly creates rich characters in the Vladisavljevic family; Betty, Linsh, older brother Casper, and others are realistically drawn with deep histories. Readers will love meeting this family, and will appreciate Greta's and Valdin's distinctive voices and outlooks on life.

New Zealander Reilly debuts with a charming tale of two siblings reckoning with heartache and familial dysfunction. The novel begins as a comedy of errors. Valdin, who goes by V and has obsessive compulsive disorder, opens a package meant for his father, Linsh, mistakenly believing it's a book returned as an olive branch by his ex-boyfriend, Xabi. Meanwhile, V's sister, Greta, is ghosted by an internet date while on a trip to Wellington and ends up lost on a dark forest path. The siblings, who share an apartment in Auckland, have no shortage of complicated family dynamics (Linsh is Russian; their mother, Betty, is Mā ori; and Xabi is their uncle's Catalonian husband's brother). Greta, an English tutor and graduate student at the University of Auckland, pines for one of her colleagues, while V, a former astrophysicist turned TV travel show host, flies to Argentina on assignment, where he seizes a chance to connect with Xabi. Reilly drops in lots of Māori words and phrases, but does so in a manner that readers will find immersive rather than alienating, thanks in part to Greta's interest in learning what they mean. This offbeat millennial comedy has universal appeal. Agents: Jenny Bent and Martha Perotto-Wills, Bent Agency. (Feb.)

Queer siblings in New Zealand deal with complicated romantic lives and with their eccentric relatives. "We're all strange, romantic emotional people in this family," Linsh Vladisavljevic tells his daughter, Greta. She's just come off a bad date; Linsh has just revealed, for the first time, the story of how he romanced Greta's mother, Betty. (It involved comparing her to the deep ocean--Linsh is a biologist who specializes in sea fungus.) Greta, a graduate student in literature, lives with Valdin, her equally lovelorn brother, who still pines for his ex-boyfriend and deals with a range of issues from OCD to struggles at his gig hosting a TV travel show. A third sibling, "try-hard" Casper, juggles a wife and two children in the suburbs. While Greta and Val are trying to figure out their own identities as queer people and as mixed-race--Linsh is Russian Moldovan and Betty, a youth theater director, is Māori--they must also navigate their changing relationships with their parents and extended relatives, many of them also queer. (This welcome sprawl beyond the nuclear family mirrors Māori values; Reilly herself is of Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Wai descent.) In the wrong hands this could all be quirk for quirk's sake, or a half-baked hybrid of Schitt's Creek and The Royal Tenenbaums. But Reilly's humor is so riotously specific, and the many moments of true poignancy so gently infused with that same humor, that the Vladisavljevics seem like no one but themselves. As Greta and Valdin come into their own--helped by, and helping, the many weirdos in their lives--readers can root for only one outcome: If Reilly won't give us a sequel, then we can at least hope she won't make us wait too long for her next novel. Say hello to your new favorite fictional family. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Written with striking prose and humor-filled dialogue, Reilly's debut novel explores the lives of neurodivergent, queer, multiethnic characters as they navigate love and family in modern Auckland. Siblings Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic are Maori on their mother, Betty's, side, and their father, Linsh, is an immigrant from Russia. Valdin had been in love with his older boyfriend, Xabi, until suffering from a mental health crisis that prompted him to quit his job as an astrophysicist and change his career. Now he works as a television presenter on a travel show. As Valdin considers his life without Xabi, he learns more about his father's story of leaving Russia. Greta is studying for her master's degree in comparative literature. She pines after a fellow tutor, Holly, while trying to decide what to do after graduate school. Reilly creates rich characters in the Vladisavljevic family; Betty, Linsh, older brother Casper, and others are realistically drawn with deep histories. Readers will love meeting this family, and will appreciate Greta's and Valdin's distinctive voices and outlooks on life. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.

The only Maaori at his office, Valdin has been moping since his boyfriend left him and moved to Buenos Aires. Now he's living with sister Greta, who is plagued by boyfriend problems of her own and an incomplete and possibly irrelevant master's thesis to boot. And then work sends Valdin to Buenos Aires. A New Zealand best seller from award-winning Maaori novelist Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea). Prepub Alert. Copyright 2023 Library Journal

New Zealander Reilly debuts with a charming tale of two siblings reckoning with heartache and familial dysfunction. The novel begins as a comedy of errors. Valdin, who goes by V and has obsessive compulsive disorder, opens a package meant for his father, Linsh, mistakenly believing it's a book returned as an olive branch by his ex-boyfriend, Xabi. Meanwhile, V's sister, Greta, is ghosted by an internet date while on a trip to Wellington and ends up lost on a dark forest path. The siblings, who share an apartment in Auckland, have no shortage of complicated family dynamics (Linsh is Russian; their mother, Betty, is Ma ori; and Xabi is their uncle's Catalonian husband's brother). Greta, an English tutor and graduate student at the University of Auckland, pines for one of her colleagues, while V, a former astrophysicist turned TV travel show host, flies to Argentina on assignment, where he seizes a chance to connect with Xabi. Reilly drops in lots of Maori words and phrases, but does so in a manner that readers will find immersive rather than alienating, thanks in part to Greta's interest in learning what they mean. This offbeat millennial comedy has universal appeal. Agents: Jenny Bent and Martha Perotto-Wills, Bent Agency. (Feb.)