The novel by Andrew Sean Greer that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2018 was Less.
Published in 2017, Less follows Arthur Less, a nearly 50-year-old American novelist who travels around the world while trying to avoid attending the wedding of his former romantic partner. The journey takes him through a series of comic, awkward, and emotionally revealing encounters, turning travel into a meditation on aging, love, loneliness, and artistic identity.
The Pulitzer citation described the book as generous, musical in its prose, and expansive in its treatment of growing older and the essential nature of love. Greer’s novel is often described as a literary comedy or satire, but its humor is paired with a serious emotional arc as Arthur confronts the life he has built and the relationships he has lost.
A common mix-up is the award year: Less was published in 2017 but won the 2018 Pulitzer, whose winners were announced on April 16, 2018. The finalists were Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance and Elif Batuman’s The Idiot.