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book cover for Villa Coco

Villa Coco

A Novel

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Pub Date Jun 9 2026 | Archive Date Jun 9 2026


Description

ADJUTANT DESIRED for owner of modest country house. Collection of books, objects, art such as a Picasso to be cataloged be­fore Christmas. Duties: dictation, pruning, shopping, hunting martens.

So begins the tale of our young man, an aspir­ing archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career notable mainly for poor choices in love. Taking up residence in the Italian countryside, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboy­ant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boar hunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa’s extensive collection of art and antiques—although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose.

Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco’s great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late.
Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we’ve always wanted to be.
ADJUTANT DESIRED for owner of modest country house. Collection of books, objects, art such as a Picasso to be cataloged be­fore Christmas. Duties: dictation, pruning, shopping, hunting martens.

So...

Advance Praise

“[Greer] captures the allure of la dolce vita—Renaissance paintings and books, bottles of Lambrusco wine and gelato—all bathed in a buttery Tuscan light.”TIME

“Travel to Italy without leaving your reading chair with the Pulitzer Prize winner's latest.”People

“[A] warm, witty escape, this time with olive oil and mild chaos.”Oprah Daily

“No one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. Every sentence in this novel sings.”—David Sedaris

“Not only [is Greer] 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 Shrines of Gaiety

“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

“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 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 recognize its glorious haphazard villa and determined Baronessa on sight.”—Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands

“[Greer] captures the allure of la dolce vita—Renaissance paintings and books, bottles of Lambrusco wine and gelato—all bathed in a buttery Tuscan light.”TIME

“Travel to Italy without leaving your...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780385702867
PRICE CA$37.00 (CAD)
PAGES 288

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