Read and Feed: "Villa Coco" makes the case for savoring what's in season
Andrew Sean Greer's Italian comedy is best read slowly, like a meal worth lingering over
A new occasional series: Read and Feed
Olga Massov and I worked together at The Washington Post — she in Food, I in Book World. We’ve joined forces again to create Read and Feed, an occasional series pairing a book worth discussing with a recipe drawn from its pages or its world.
The idea is simple: book clubs already gather around food. A dish tied to the book turns a discussion into an occasion — and gives everyone one more thing to talk about. In each installment, I’ll tell you why the book earns a spot on your club’s list, and Olga will bring a recipe worthy of the table.
First up: an Italian villa, a bewildered American archivist, and Pesto Avvantaggiato.
Read
Villa Coco By Andrew Sean Greer
June 9, 2026. Doubleday. 288 pp.
A young American archivist hired to impose order on a 92-year-old Baronessa’s “modest country house” sits, waiting, in a hallway full of objects that might be trash or treasure. When Baronessa Lisabetta, known as Coco, appears, calling him Giovedì (misunderstanding his name as the Italian word for Thursday), there are more pressing matters of a sewer line mishap and locating the telephone to call the plumber. And maybe a swim as well.
Days later, having been warned never to bring back luck to the Baronessa’s household by leaving a hat on the bed, our young narrator has failed to recognize the grotto’s sofa as a daybed, eliciting screams from Coco, who consults with the sewage man about what to do next: “He’ll know the answer. He’s from Napoli.” After a hurried phone conversation in Italian, Coco reports the bad news:
“He says whoever put the hat on the bed has to touch the palle of a nearby man.”
“What is a palle?” I asked.
“The testicles.”
We stared at each other for a moment.
“That can’t be what he said.”
“He’s quite sure,” she said resolutely. “And I am not yet deaf.”
Weeks into his stay, Giovedì begins cataloging, but the objects refuse categorization, and Coco declines to explain them, suggesting he focus on the library, where he starts alphabetizing. “Are you mad?” she asks, requesting he instead sort the books by the authors’ countries of birth. When he agrees, thinking it should be straightforward, she rebuffs him.
“Not so easy as you say! Where, for instance, is Yugoslavia? Or, for that matter, the Ottoman Empire? Prussia? Austria-Hungary? So many nations I knew as a girl. To simplify things, I refer to the map you see here on the wall.”
The map was over a century out of date.
By summer, Giovedì has acquired a relationship as casually as he’s acquired a nickname. Oscar, Coco’s oldest friend, tells him not to take what comes — that another life is always possible. The lessons aren’t dramatic — they are incremental, like the plot itself, which meanders more than it progresses, but the diversions are where the charm lies.
It is a particularly American affectation to want explanation, clarity and a sense of purpose, yet the book follows the tempo of the Italian countryside, where answers are revealed in time, and life is about savoring each moment as it comes. Artichokes, when in season, are eaten at every meal – stuffed and baked, cleaned and raw, or sliced into a salad. And when their time is over, we will stop eating them, and who knows whether we will be back for this season again.
Feed
🍳 Substitutions + Notes 🍳
Vegan or dairy-free? → Use nondairy cheese or nutritional yeast.
Pine nuts → walnuts, pecans, or almonds.
Nut-free? → Use hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), but I don’t want Italian police coming after me.
Yukon Gold potatoes → other buttery, less starchy potatoes.
Who Are We?
Olga Massov spent years developing, testing, and editing recipes for The Washington Post's Food section and elsewhere, as well as writing and editing cookbooks with globally renowned chefs. She now writes A Matter of Taste, a newsletter featuring recipes for home cooks, along with the stories behind them and the realities of feeding a busy family. A Matter of Taste is the food newsletter to read cover to cover — Olga's recipes are tested with a professional's rigor and written with a friend's warmth. Your book club's next dinner is in good hands. Subscribe here.
Former Washington Post Book World writer Becky Meloan curates selections for readers in book clubs who are looking for books that will leave impressions that linger and generate enjoyable discussions. Her superpower is knowing how to winnow a season’s worth of book releases into a manageable list of standouts, tailored to the temperaments of varied readers. Subscribe now so you and your book club will always know what to read next.
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Oh my goodness! My two favorite things--food and books! Great idea!
Oooh, I was going to make pesto today, perfect!