An Unnecessary Woman was written by Rabih Alameddine, one of Beirut’s most celebrated voices. The novel is a breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman's late-life crisis that garnered a wave of rave reviews and love letters to Alameddine’s cranky yet charming septuagenarian protagonist, Aaliya, a character you "can't help but love," according to NPR.

Aaliya’s insightful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese civil war and her volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left. Here, author Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of one woman's life in the Middle East and an enduring ode to literature and its power to define who we are.

An Unnecessary Woman was the gold medal winner for fiction in the Commonwealth Club's 84th Annual California Book Awards in 2014, an annual event that honors California writers. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. The New York Times describes the book as "beautiful and absorbing."

Please join us to discuss this interesting and inventive novel by an author born in Jordan and educated in England and America. He presently lives in San Francisco and Beirut.