WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
From the 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.
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a darkly comic, multi-decade novel narrated by Raja, a 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher living in Beirut with his formidable mother, Zalfa. The story weaves back and forth through Raja’s life—from his childhood during the start of the Lebanese Civil War, through personal trials and national disasters such as Lebanon’s banking collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 Beirut port explosion—highlighting his complicated, often exasperating but deeply loving relationship with his mother. When an offer of a writing residency in America arrives, Raja hopes for escape, but instead reflects on his past misadventures, family bonds, mistakes, trauma, and the absurdities of life. Told with wit, poignancy, and sharp insight, the novel explores love, identity, memory, and resilience against the backdrop of Lebanon’s turbulent history.
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.
