Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer (&ldquo;A great chronicler of our times.&rdquo; &ndash;<San Francisco Chronicle<) showcases his wit, sophistication and deep knowledge of focaccia in this magical and madcap tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills

Broke and directionless, our young man (the chosen moniker of <Villa Coco<&rsquo;s narrator) takes a job in the Italian countryside as the all-purpose assistant (technically, the employment ad asked for &ldquo;adjutant&rdquo;) to Lisabetta, known to her friends as Coco, a strong-willed, wealthy widow of great local renown. Technically, our young man is an archivist, charged with cataloguing Coco&rsquo;s extensive and eclectic collection of art and artifacts, but what <are< his actual duties? He is charged with ridding the house of a marten, whatever that is, locating the antediluvian septic system, entertaining an endless carousel of guests (from bohemian painters to elderly princesses to handsome nephews), attending a funeral in order to make off with the urn, and&nbsp;not inadvertently sabotaging&nbsp;Coco&rsquo;s great and final plan&mdash;to locate the lost love of her life and be reunited before it&rsquo;s too late.

Told with the signature wit, insight, and deeply felt humanity that made <Less <an international phenomenon, <Villa Coco< is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself&mdash;a romp through a youthfully self-constructed emotional obstacle course, a meditation on what we give and take from others, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who you&rsquo;ve always wanted to be.

Autorentext

ANDREW SEAN GREER is the bestselling author of seven previous works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize winner Less and its companion, Less Is Lost. He lives in San Francisco and Venice, Italy.

Klappentext

**Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: People, TIME, Esquire, Oprah Daily, Lit Hub, Seattle Times

“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

“Such a sunny book.”—Kate Atkinson**

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, 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 boarhunters, 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.