Bon Vivant

From the author of the internationally bestselling debut Greta & Valdin, a heartfelt and hilarious novel that follows the eccentric and entangled Vladisavljevic family, hinging on a complicated love triangle that sets in motion decades of desire.

It’s the 1980s and nineteen-year-old Beatrice has left New Zealand for the very first time, swapping the small, rugged island she grew up on for a heady Italian summer that will change the course of her life. Tagging along on a classmate’s family holiday, she learns that her friend’s elusive twin brother, Giuseppe, will unexpectedly be joining them. It quickly becomes apparent why Beatrice has been kept away from Giuseppe all this time—he is strikingly charismatic and has a reputation for bedding his brother’s friends, regardless of their gender. Sure enough, as Beatrice and Giuseppe explore Sicily’s discotheques and gelaterias unchaperoned, a secret romance blossoms. There’s hardly time to think about Linsh, the introspective intellectual Beatrice has waiting for her at home. He’s everything Giuseppe isn’t—and unbeknownst to Beatrice, her two paramours are caught up in each other’s lives already.

Years later, despite having taken separate paths, Beatrice and Giuseppe still orbit each other, their feelings surfacing irrepressibly amidst a changing world. The exhilarating crush of their young love has simmered into something fraught but no less charged, and their undeniable attraction forces them to imagine what seems impossible. A delicious and wise exploration of intersecting lives across continents and cultures set against the global transformation of the late 20th century, Bon Vivant is a tender celebration of how love can slip, stumble, and expand into something wholly new.