Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulA philosophy teacher in his sixties tells family stories while his mother loses her memory
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
A philosophy teacher and his mother, whose memory is failing, tell stories that reach across Lebanon's history
The narrator is a 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher whose mother is losing her memory. The book is told in seven parts in which one story opens inside another, moving back and forth between 1960 and 2025. Those years take in the Lebanese Civil War, the 2019 banking crisis, Covid and the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut. Alameddine was inspired in part by his own relationship with his aging mother, and he tells the story with dark comedy.
More about this book
Who
A 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher, who tells the story, and his mother, who is losing her memory.
World
Lebanon, from 1960 to 2025, with the Lebanese Civil War, the 2019 banking crisis, Covid and the 2020 Beirut port explosion in the background.
What makes it different
Stories are nested inside other stories and are not told in a straight line. The author has said it grew partly out of his relationship with his aging mother.
Feel
Dark comedy and family drama. It won the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition