Villa Coco

Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer showcases his wit and warmth in this life-enhancing tale of friendship set amidst the Tuscan hills.

Greer is not only the funniest of writers, but he has a wonderful way with conjuring an image. . . Villa Coco is such a sunny book

No one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. Every sentence in this novel sings .

An absolute delight

What, at first, appears to be a gloriously bonkers escapade amidst the Tuscan landscape gradually transforms into the most beautiful paean to youth, to age and to the fulfilment of love. Absolute joy.

Eccentric, funny, touching: I adored it .

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Arthur Less novels captures the allure of la dolce vita -Renaissance paintings and books, bottles of Lambrusco wine and gelato-all bathed in a buttery Tuscan light.

A gorgeous, sun-soaked novel from Andrew Sean Greer that feels tailor-made for holiday reading . . . It is impossible to read this playful, escapist novel without a smile on your face

Some books just feel like a vacation

Hired by an eccentric 92-year-old baroness, an archivist takes up residence in a decaying Italian villa to catalog its art and antiques collection - and finds himself caught up in a mad tangle of houseguests, handymen and other quirky characters

In prose as expert and precise as the steps of a Balinese dancer, Andrew Sean Greer has written a tale of a young American man who spends a season in Tuscany working as an archivist for an endlessly demanding, supremely disorganized, and very charismatic Baronessa. It's a lyrical and witty reminder that the most meaningful life - and certainly the one with the best stories - can emerge from the deepest chaos. Villa Coco, the Baronessa's crumbling mansion, is referred to by all as ' a great treasure .' Villa Coco , the novel, is one, too.

What a beautiful book: an absolutely engrossing world full of golden sunlight and strange little secrets and anchovies and art. I feel like I'd recognise its glorious haphazard villa and determined Baronessa on sight.

This book is absolute magic. It is so rare to find a novel today that is both so sophisticated and warm-hearted, so erudite and yet absolutely unpretentious, so terrifically page-by-page funny and yet so full of hidden sadnesses. Also, it features one of the greatest characters in modern fiction, the unflappable and unforgettable Baronessa. Get ready for the literary treat of the year!

Outrageously good fun. The intricacies unspool, the characters fizz, the chaos ensues. Sheer, riotous, unmitigated joy

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, this gentle, warm, funny story centres on a young American arriving at a villa in Tuscany to help out the Baronessa who lives there, and navigating his way through a ramshackle, farcical, ridiculous situation. Ideal holiday reading.

Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer-winning Less was a satire of grief and literary mediocrity that was anything but mediocre. His new protagonist is an archivist who has taken on a job in the beautiful Tuscan hills. What could go wrong?

Travel to Italy without leaving your reading chair with the Pulitzer Prize winner's latest. Villa Coco chronicles a young man who takes a job as the assistant to a wealthy Baroness named Lisabetta - better known as Coco to her friends.

Set to be a staple on sun loungers

A perfect summer romp with a strong sense of place

The Pulitzer-winner returns with what looks to be a giddy farce, about a young man who takes a role as caretaker to and for an eccentric older woman and her Tuscan estate as she tries to reconnect with the great lost love of her life

The Pulitzer-winning author of Less looks ready to serve another warm, witty escape, this time with olive oil and mild chaos . Villa Coco follows a broke young man who takes an "adjutant" job at a crumbling Tuscan villa for Coco, a magnetic elderly baroness with money, secrets, and a final romantic mission. His duties range from cataloguing art to chasing martens and surviving a rotating cast of eccentrics, all while trying not to derail Coco's last shot at love.

Andrew Sean Greer, author of "Less," writes another transportive book , but this time set in an Italian villa where a man takes a job as an assistant to an eccentric older woman

'Glorious. So summery and delicate and scented [that] I didn't realise the tight, clever story being carefully coiled around me until he pulls it all tight in those final pages . . . I adored it'

A book soaked in golden sunshine on crumbling Italian stone, flagons of red wine, the olive harvest, and a delightfully eccentric cast of characters. Presiding over them all is the entirely bonkers but brilliant Baronessa. Think A Room With a View meets The Enchanted April (two of my favourite novels to read when the world is sad and grey). An elegy to sunshine, joy, stolen kisses, youth and hope. Utter bliss, escapism and a panacea

PRAISE FOR ANDREW SEAN GREER
'Bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful' New York Times
'I recommend it with my whole heart' Ann Patchett
'Brilliant' Guardian
'Basically perfect' Dolly Alderton
'Unforgettable' Independent

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of eight works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Less . From 2016-2018, Greer was the first Executive Director of the Santa Maddalena Foundation, working alongside president Beatrice Monti della Corte to invite authors from around the world for a writing residence in the Tuscan countryside. The setting of Villa Coco , Greer's latest novel, is partly inspired by the time he spent there.