Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (Paperback)

This 40th anniversary edition of the cult classic includes an introduction by Rachel Kushner, Booker Prize-nominated author of Creation Lake and The Mars Room.

In 1985, years before American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, disturbed and captivated readers with his debut novel, Less Than Zero.

A New York Times bestseller and the basis for a cult-classic film, Less Than Zero became a defining portrait of a generation shaped by excess and emotional detachment. Praised for its unsettling realism, the novel captures the emptiness hidden beneath the glamour of 1980s Los Angeles.

Eighteen-year-old Clay returns home to LA for Christmas break after his first term at college. Rich, bored and searching for distraction, he steps back into a world of limitless privilege and indulgence. Surrounded by expensive cars, late nights and endless parties, he reconnects with his girlfriend Blair and his best friend Julian, whose life is beginning to spiral in dangerous ways.

As Clay drifts through lavish mansions, underground clubs and the darker corners of the city, he finds himself pulled into a world driven by excess and moral decline. Beneath the glamour lies something far more unsettling.

Published when Bret Easton Ellis was just twenty-one, Less Than Zero became a defining literary work that held a mirror to the culture of wealth, disaffection and excess in Los Angeles.