Critically acknowledged as a tour de force in the genre of historical fiction, Memoirs of Hadrian has been described by the author as "a psychological novel and meditation on history."

Attempting to explore the aesthetic boundaries of the human condition while assimilating the configuration of absolute power, the novel literally creates a portrait of its central character, the Emperor Hadrian, as well as the Roman Empire of the second century. Written in the form of a letter by Hadrian to his adopted grandson and eventual successor, Marcus Aurelius, Memoirs of Hadrian allows the protagonist to ruminate on the circumstances of his life and more importantly the inevitability of his death. The author of essentially a self-analytical autobiography, Hadrian is at once addressing his own mortality while orchestrating the exchange of authority and the transference of experience by composing a philosophical treatise on the...