Rabih Alameddine's six favorite novels

Lebanese-American writer Rabih Alameddine is the author of The Hakawati (The Storyteller), a 2008 international best-seller. His new novel is An Unnecessary Woman.

One of Alameddine's six favorite novels, as shared at The Week magazine:

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

The ultimate magic act, this novel is so impeccably rendered that one can't believe it's fiction. A historical record, a novel of government and power, a love story; it is all that and more.

Read about the other entries on the list. 

Memoirs of Hadrian is among John Mullan's ten best emperors in literature and Teju Cole's top 10 novels of solitude.

--Marshal Zeringue