Less (Booktrack Edition)

A Novel

By: Andrew Sean Greer

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty" (The New York Times Book Review).

Less: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience!

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

National Bestseller

A New York Times Notable Book of 2017

A Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2017

A San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Book of 2017

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Lambda Award, and the California Book Award

Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes—it would be too awkward—and you can't say no—it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

What would possibly go wrong?

Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.

Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.

Booktrack is an immersive format that pairs traditional audiobook narration to complementary music. The tempo and rhythm of the score are in perfect harmony with the action and characters throughout the audiobook. Gently playing in the background, the music never overpowers or distracts from the narration, so listeners can enjoy every minute. When you purchase this Booktrack edition, you receive the exact narration as the traditional audiobook available, with the addition of music throughout.

©2019 Andrew Sean Greer (P)2019 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

"Less is the funniest, smartest and most humane novel I've read since Tom Rachman's 2010 debut, The Imperfectionists....Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty. His metaphors come at you like fireflies....Like Arthur, Andrew Sean Greer's Less is excellent company. It's no less than bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful."—New York Times Book Review

"Greer is an exceptionally lovely writer, capable of mingling humor with sharp poignancy.... Brilliantly funny.... Greer's narration, so elegantly laced with wit, cradles the story of a man who loses everything: his lover, his suitcase, his beard, his dignity."—Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Greer's novel is philosophical, poignant, funny and wise, filled with unexpected turns....Although Greer is gifted and subtle in comic moments, he's just as adept at ruminating on the deeper stuff. His protagonist grapples with aging, loneliness, creativity, grief, self-pity and more."—San Francisco Chronicle

Less is more

Fantastic listen! Everything about this is simply delightful. The story, the reader, the addition of music—wonderfully engaging.

Less is wonderful

I started Less three times before I could not put it down. Beautifully written, insightful, funny and sad all at once, I know I will read it again.

Boooooooring.

No one wanted to love this book as much as I did. There ARE things I liked about it [the "what is it like to live with genius" part was superb]. But it has a colorless, washed out and re-branded... yawny... quality to it. Just like Less.

Wish I didnt listen to it for as long as I did, hoping surely it must get better, and lost my [free] credit. 😔. It is not a bad book, not even close. But hard to believe it won a pulitzer.

Less is not more. Plus a Pulitzer?

Wow. What a disappointment. I cannot fathom how this won the Pulitzer. I’m gobsmacked. It’s a trifle overly descriptive whining book about a privileged white gay man that wrote a book about a privileged white gay man so he travels the world. If I wrote a piece of fiction the year this was awarded the top prize in literature I would quit everything and burn books.