Edmund White's most important books

Edmund White is the author, most recently, of Hotel de Dream. He told Newsweek about his five most important books.

One title to make the list:

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño.

The living heart of this book is the knowledge of what it would be like to be young and poor, and in love with art and sex.

Read about all five titles on White's list.

Edmund White's novels include Fanny: A Fiction, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, and A Married Man. He is also the author of a biography of Jean Genet, a study of Marcel Proust, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, and a memoir, My Lives.

--Marshal Zeringue