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Big Swiss: A Novel

"Wild...hilarious...so good." --Cosmopolitan, Best Books of the Year * "A laugh-out-loud bad romance for Gen Xers and an ode to misfits who just want to belong." --Oprah Daily * "Always interesting...too fun to stop." --Vanity Fair

"One of the funniest books of the last few years" (Los Angeles Times) about a sex therapist's transcriptionist and her affair with one of the patients.

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.

One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss's voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she'll do anything to sustain the relationship...

"A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel" (Bustle), Big Swiss is both a love story and a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more--from an amazingly talented, singular voice in contemporary fiction.

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352 pages

Average rating: 6.57

361 RATINGS

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monicaroush

Apr 08, 2025

10, 6, 5, 6, 7

Kristy_loves

Apr 02, 2025

8/10 stars

Fantastic book! I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last page. It was great fun!

lulutripp

Mar 16, 2025

6/10 stars

I think I am finally ready to say a bit about this one. I gave it three stars because I can honestly say (though it took me some time) that I liked it...but I did not "really like" or "love" it. I liked it because it gave me a jaded, snarky character (something that can be really hit or miss for me, possibly depending on my mood) that I ended up kind of liking Greta. She was weird for sure, but I loved the details Beagin used to flesh her out. "Big Swiss" on the other hand...was kind of awful. I never saw what Greta saw in her and had a hard time believing that they were ever "in love." I feel like it was mutual infatuation for different reasons. I felt like Greta just needed a distraction from her own aimlessness and it came in the form of Big Swiss, possibly because she felt in awe of the fact that the younger woman could seem so together after such a brutal and traumatic thing happened to her. But I guess I have never been that fond of people who are "above" having big, messy emotions, which Flavia/Big Swiss seems to be.

Anyway, believable, well-written characters and situations - funny at times but kind of dark. Mild warning for others who are also sensitive about animals: the pup is injured towards the end but doesn't die.

Kris O.

Mar 04, 2025

2/10 stars

DNFed at 54 % It's like the author read "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith and "Running With Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs and thought "I can totally do a mash up of these two books." Spoiler alert: No she can't. The characters were mostly unlikeable, Sabine and Pinyon being the only exceptions, I knew very soon that the two main characters weren't going to have a happy ever after, their sex was so creepy I wanted a bath.

Anonymous

Jan 07, 2025

8/10 stars

This book was on the cusp of five stars for me until around 79% of the way through. The ending just felt a lot more contrived than the rest of the book, which was overflowing with subtle and unsubtle wit. However, the strength of the plot and the characters through the rest of the book still carry this to a respectable 4/5. Would read more from this author and watch an adaptation if it comes out.