Less, by Andrew Sean Greer

This is not the kind of book that usually wins the Pulitzer Prize, yet it just did.  It is light, witty, and has a happy ending.  Who knew?  Arthur Less is on the cusp of fifty, a difficult age for most, but perhaps especially difficult for an aging gay man who has just received a wedding invitation to his long-time lover’s celebration.  Less is a novelist and teacher with a his best work seemingly behind him.  Determined not to be around for the impending nuptials, Less decides to accept any recent invitation to speak or teach in a far-flung location, and to attend an awards ceremony that he would never have otherwise gone to, just to get out of town.  His travels and misadventures take him to Paris, Berlin (hilarious), Morocco, India, and Japan.  As a very young man, he stole an older Pulitzer Prize winning poet away from his wife and lived with him for many years.  Now the famous poet is dying and the wronged wife shows up in the story too.   A unique romance.  261 pp.