Less

Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Arthur Less, a mid-list author with his best work behind him, stares down the barrel of his upcoming 50th birthday and feels forlorn. A trip around the world does nothing to elevate his spirits, and his life seems a long trial of loss and irritations. As he meanders through his exotic locales, Arthur ponders the meaning of his life, his work, his relationships, and his self. Arthur has known true love — deeply — and feels it's absence now; is there another chance for him to experience love? Greer's charming, yet melancholy, story is a tale of modern life, and how sublime it is despite all its complications.  Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

By the critically acclaimed author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli and The Impossible Life of Greta Wells, a hilarious and heartfelt novel about a man's transformational journey around the world.

Arthur Less, a mid-list novelist, is approaching his 50th birthday, and he needs to grow up. But first he needs to get out: Arthur's much younger, exceedinglybeautiful ex-boyfriend is getting married, and the last thing Arthur wants to do is attend the wedding. So he accepts every half-baked literary invitation that's recently come his way, slaps together his frequent flier miles, leaves San Francisco, and takes a trip around the world.

His travels take him to Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Vietnam, India, and Japan. Along the way, he finds love, despair, adventure, and plenty of misadventure, is forced to come to terms with the fleeting of youth and the realities of life — in often quite hilarious ways.

"What a wonderful, wonderful book! Here is everything I want from a story — moments of high humor, moments of genuine wisdom, sharp insights and gorgeous images, and so many vivid and strange settings. I love a book that moves me through space and this one produces a lot of places, both geographical and emotional, in a fast and rocketing read." Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

"The most deftly funny romantic comedy I've read in years. If you have a sentimental bone in your body (I have 206), the ending will make you sob little tears of joy." Nell Zink, author of Mislaid and Nicotine

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of five works of fiction, including The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He is the recipient of the Northern California Book Award, the California Book Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the O Henry Award for short fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library. Greer lives in San Francisco. He has traveled to all of the locations in this novel, but he is only big in Italy.