“A soccer game is a Wagner opera. The narrative sets up, the tension builds, the music ebbs and flows, the strings, the horns, more tension, and suddenly a moment of pure bliss, trumpet-tongued Gabriel sings, and gods descend from Olympus to dance - this peak of ecstasy.”

Lebanese painter and writer

Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese painter and writer known for his novels and essays. His work has received major recognition, including the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction. He is best known as a novelist, with The Wrong End of the Telescope winning the PEN/Faulkner Award and The True True Story of Raja the Gullible taking the National Book Award. As a writer and painter, he is associated with literary work that has earned broad critical attention.