On April 18, at 6:30 p.m., FLAD will host the American writer Andrew Sean Greer, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize with Less – published in Portugal by Quetzal – for another edition of the Meet the Author programs. This initiative is a partnership with the newspaper PÚBLICO.

The author of seven novels, including bestsellers The Confessions of Max Tivoli and Less, will be in Lisbon to talk about his latest book, Less is Lost (Quetzal, 2024), a sequel of the Pulitzer Prize winner Less, on literature and much more, in a conversation with the journalist Isabel Lucas.

Andrew Sean Greer’s path to success in the literary world was not obvious. Greer was born and raised on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., son of two scientists, has a twin brother. He studied writing at Brown University, and then moved to New York, where he worked as a chauffeur, was an extra on television shows and failed to make it as a writer (as he himself describes). He then moved to Missoula, where he earned his master’s degree from the University of Montana, and another move took him to Seattle, where he wrote for the Japanese video game company Nintendo and taught at a community college.

Success came in San Francisco, where he began publishing his writing in magazines such as Esquire, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Reviews were positive, and a year later he published his first novel, The Path of Minor Planets. It was with his second novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, that he achieved national attention and was translated and published in 22 countries.

His most successful book, Less, was published in July 2017, and won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize, the Northern California Book Award and reached the New York Times bestseller list.

The work tells the story of Arthur Less, a writer with a discreet and average career, about to reach the age of 50, trying to survive his professional failure, in a struggle between his doubts and insecurities, in an environment of devouring egos, when he is invited to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding.

Thus begins the long journey that precedes his fiftieth birthday: trying to escape marriage, Less begins to accept all kinds of invitations to participate in readings, literary festivals, lectures all over the world. From France to India, from Germany to Japan, from Mexico to Italy, Arthur Less almost falls in love, almost gives up, almost dies, but eventually finds his way back home and to life. A satirical novel about love, advancing age, mismatch and the depths of the human heart.

In 2022, Andrew Sean Greer published the sequel Less Lost, published by Quetzal in 2024, where it tells the adventures of Arthur Less after the death of his former lover – a much older poet laureate, in whose shadow Less had lived for fifteen years – and the new and extremely adverse financial reality that came from it force him to face situations from which our hero had been fleeing, despite his agent’s desperate pleas.

Meet the Author is an initiative of FLAD, in partnership with PÚBLICO newspaper. The goal is to provide Portuguese readers with close contact with some of the most respected writers in the USA. The sessions take place monthly and are open to the general public, free of charge. The guest authors are interviewed by journalist Isabel Lucas.

The conversation with Andrew Sean Greer will take place on April 18, at 6:30 pm, at the FLAD Auditorium, at Rua do Sacramento à Lapa, 21, in Lisbon.

The session is open to the public and admission is free. If you want to attend, confirm your attendance here.

If you need further clarification, please email us at eventos.cultura@flad.pt