June is almost over and we—the pop-culture-loving public—still don’t have a summer theme. I refuse to let this happen two years in a row. 2023 was Barbie Summer. 2024 was Brat Summer. And 2025? It came and went without ever really claiming a vibe. But fear not: I think I’ve found our answer for 2026 in Villa Coco, the tremendously charming new novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer. 

So, please consider today’s Worth the Read my formal proposal for making 2026 Baronessa Summer. (The fact that it keeps our streak of iconic B-word summers alive is just a bonus.)

I fell in love with Greer’s writing back in 2017 when I read his fifth novel, Less. For months afterward, I became that person telling everyone and anyone that they had to read this laugh-out-loud masterpiece about a deeply unlucky 50-year-old novelist who is literally running away from his problems. So when Less won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, I practically yelped with joy. I was thrilled to see such a wonderful book get the recognition it deserved. To this day, Less remains one of my all-time favorite novels, and if you haven’t read it, I really can’t recommend it enough.

Which brings us to Villa Coco, Greer's newest novel, which sets out to accomplish something very different. If Less is about finding hope on the edge of tragedy, Villa Coco is about finding joy in the everyday absurdities of life.

In his author letter at the beginning of Villa Coco’s early review copies, Greer says he set out to write a “charm novel,” which is “a kind of novel where you [want] to remain in its pages forever: a world in which even the worst of circumstances could provide a funny story and a sense of hope. A book to reread yearly as a balm to the soul.” 

And, truly, thank Greer he did, because this is exactly the book I needed. Over the past few years, I’ve felt that readers have been forced to choose between dreary literary writing and fluffy genre fiction. Neither is inherently bad, but what about those of us who want something funny and uplifting that’s also beautifully written?

Enter Villa Coco.

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