Aaron, Hanna and the Game Against Time

Aaron believes in a world full of possibilities, including the rare possibility that a relationship can occasionally last for all the right reasons. His muse, the person he fell in love with instantly, is Hanna, a Swiss-born natural blonde with a skepticism that is earned from growing up with divorced parents and a protective brother who shows no emotions. Hanna is street smart, practical, and more than a little wary when Aaron uses words like love, but she decides to try to "win the game" with him because of Aaron's insistence that it's possible.

From their first meeting in Amsterdam to their years together in Northern California, Aaron and Hanna try, in their own way, to preserve what they have, even as acts of devotion look like distancing, and good intentions create confusion. Whether love can survive misunderstanding, silence, and the pressures that accumulate over years is a question, and a decision, every couple hoping to win against time must consider for themselves.

One of Four Gary Marks Books Released in 2026

Love +/- Time is one of four books Marks released in 2026, alongside Touching Eros, Emily's Game, and Timshel's Choice, his most concentrated run of new fiction since he completed The Dance and the Diamond Sky in 1988

Amsterdam to Northern California and Back Again

The novel's geography matters as much as its timeline: Aaron and Hanna meet in Amsterdam, but build their life together in Northern California. It's a transatlantic arc that mirrors Hanna's own internal struggle of trying to adapt to Aaron's world while trying to remember hers, even as Aaron tries to offer her everything he thinks will make her happy.

Marks has described the book's central question—whether love can actually win the game of life—as a theme that surfaces in some of his other work, including his song "Sky High."

Marks has said the title's arithmetic, love plus or minus time, was meant literally: what's left once time has taken hearts and minds on its inevitable path forward? Less? Or more?

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