Villa Coco

Reviews / Votes

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 -- Kate Atkinson, author of CASE HISTORIES and LIFE AFTER LIFE No one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. Every sentence in this novel sings. -- David Sedaris An absolute delight -- Elif Batuman, author of THE IDIOT and EITHER/OR 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. -- Sarah Winman, author of STILL LIFE Eccentric, funny, touching: I adored it. -- Nina Stibbe, author of LOVE, NINA and MAN AT THE HELM 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 -- Best New Books in June * Independent * Some books just feel like a vacation -- Best Books of 2026 * Vogue * Warm and humane . . . Hidden inside the novel's charming universe is a story with a good deal of perspective and soul * New York Times Book Review * A smart, fizzy novel about how right life can be. In Tuscany! With olive groves! . . . [Villa Coco's] easygoing warmth gathers into a smile of a coming-of-age tale * Chicago Tribune * A breezy confection of fish-out-of-water wit, insecurity and self-discovery set in an Italian paradise . . . the Baronessa, with her stories and her machinations, her loyalty, wit and courage, and the love and admiration of our young man, casts the requisite spell - delivering, in the end, an enchantment threaded through with hope * Guardian * 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 -- The Novels Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer * New York Times * The Pulitzer winner's latest novel builds a richly quirky world * Financial Times * A smart, sweetly wistful comedy from the 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner, which goes down like fine olive oil. Buono! * NPR * Sun-filled, escapist and beautifully written is Villa Coco by American novelist Andrew Sean Greer, who won the Pulitzer Prize with Less. Here, he channels eccentric family novels in the vein of Gerald Durrell and Stella Gibbons . . . A charming, sophisticated story * The Gloss * A fizzy summer cocktail of a novel . . . Packed with warmth, wit, and charm [and a] steady supply of humor * Boston Globe * If you take one book to the beach with you this summer, let it be Villa Coco . . . The novel, as charming as Greer's Pulitzer-prize winning Less, is full of witty aphorisms, tall tales, and superstitions . . . In Greer's world, servants and guests never speak the same language, villains seduce diamonds from Sicilian prices, someone is always related to the queen, and every conversation becomes a delightful conundrum. Each passage is a flirtation with food, or light playing on water beneath a bridge, or the Baronessa's Italian cousin. Or the Baronessa herself, who holds together her world (the only world) by sheer will and scheming. Villa Coco, laced with wistful, playful nostalgia, reads like youth itself -- Most Anticipated Queer Books for Summer 2026 * Electric Literature * The literary equivalent of being wrapped in a big warm hug and told, "There, there, rest now, little one". At a time when so many contemporary novels seem to speak in the internet's house style - ironic, cynical, exhausted, distracted - Villa Coco offers a reprieve of humour and delight that feels almost radical * Sydney Morning Herald * [C]aptures the allure of la dolce vita - Renaissance paintings and books, bottles of Lambrusco wine and gelato - all bathed in a buttery Tuscan light. * TIME * 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. -- Katherine Heiny, author of STANDARD DEVIATION and GAMES AND RITUALS 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. -- Holly Gramazio, author of THE HUSBANDS 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! -- Gary Shteyngart, author of VERA, OR FAITH Outrageously good fun. The intricacies unspool, the characters fizz, the chaos ensues. Sheer, riotous, unmitigated joy -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of THE MERCIES and ALMOST LIFE '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' -- Russell T Davies From the Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer comes this gorgeous book set in the Tuscan Hills . . . this lovely book romps along -- Best Books to Read in June * The Australian * 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. -- Books of 2026 * PA * 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? -- Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * The Times * 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. -- Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * People * Set to be a staple on sun loungers -- 40 Most Exciting Books of 2026 * BBC * A perfect summer romp with a strong sense of place -- 22 Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * Esquire * 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 -- Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * Lit Hub * 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. -- Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * Oprah Daily * 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 -- 52 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2026 * Today * 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 -- Natasha Poliszczuk 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