The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
From National Book Award finalist and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother
In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and ''the neighborhood homosexual,'' Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son''s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja''s work life and love life, boundaries be damned.
When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn''t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget.
Told in Raja''s irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities - a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness. Above all, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.
Alameddine is gifted at finding the humor in what for most writers would be singular traumatic themes, including AIDS, the Lebanese Civil War, and the plight of Middle Eastern migrants. Here, he applies his sardonic wit again to the Civil War as well as the calamities of Covid-19, Lebanon's banking collapse, and the 2020 Beirut port explosion... a peculiar but lively and humane book [and] a sharp exploration of resilience in dark times ― Kirkus Reviews
A novel as expansive, funny, and poignant as its title promises. With his signature wit and irreverence, Rabih Alameddine charts decades of Beiruti history and trauma through the life of his narrator, Raja, a reclusive, aging teacher of French philosophy... [a] loving, heartwrenching novel ― Shelf Awareness
Alameddine chronicles a Lebanese family's turbulent but happy lives in his ebullient latest . . . Throughout, the author skillfully juxtaposes unflinching depictions of war and deprivation with the narrator's joie de vivre. It's a ravishing performance ― Publisher's Weekly
Rabih Alameddine is one of my all-time favorite authors and indeed one of my most read authors, so I mean it as no small compliment when I say I think his latest novel is one of his very best. The True True Story is a perfectly witty and tender portrait of the chaos and dogged persistence of one catty Lebanese philosophy teacher and his lovingly annoying mother. Great voice, heavy topics, funny prose, and a rich cast of characters! ― Samia Saliba, Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI)
Raja's energetic narration is relentlessly funny, even (or especially) when it's turned to dark or disturbing events from his past. The story jumps back and forth through time and across continents, but Raja's sensitive and ultimately optimistic point of view is a gripping anchor. ― The New Yorker
A vivid, one-of-a-kind read from a lauded author . . . It's a beautiful tale. ― The Washington Independent
Alameddine conjures the caustic humor and poignant yearnings of a gay Lebanese man in his 60s . . . Alameddine's domestic comedy masks deeper themes of political ferment, one queer man's quest to forge a more authentic life. ― Time Magazine, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025
Through the winding and darkly comic anecdotes of the 63-year-old protagonist Raja we see a broad landscape of Lebanon's fractured history rooted in the actions and reactions of his hilariously imposing mother. It is really a portrait in two parts: of a man reckoning with trauma attached to his identity and homeland, and of the blind passion of a mother protecting her son.
I loved [it]. ― the Guardian
