-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
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.
Aspen Words Literary Prize 2026 shortlist
Shortlist contenders for this years prize: Endling by Maria Reva The True True Story of Raja the Gullible and His Mother by Rabih Alameddine Intemperance by Sonora Jha So Far Gone by Jess Walter Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughy The winner announced tonight was: Endling by Maria Reva
-Anne_Glasgow
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (12/04/2025)
I'm currently reading National Book Award winner https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/23243/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/a...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/27/2025)
...His Mother) https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/23243/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. I'm about 25 pages in and enjoying it so far.
-kim.kovacs
2025 National Book Awards Finalists Announced
Here's the list! Which ones have you read? Which are on your radar? Fiction : Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief Karen Russell, The Antidote Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther Bryan Wa...
-kim.kovacs
National Book Awards, 2025
"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." —Publishers Weekly
"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
This information about The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novels An Unnecessary Woman; I, the Divine; Koolaids; The Hakawati; The Wrong End of the Telescope; and the story collection, The Perv. In 2019, he won the Dos Passos Prize.
Author Interview
Link to Rabih Alameddine's Website
Name Pronunciation
Rabih Alameddine: Rah-be Ahlah-m'dean
If you liked The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), try these:
by Amira Ghenim
Published 2025
A finalist for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a compelling saga of two families that illuminates the lives of women in modern Tunisia.
by Hala Alyan
Published 2022
A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home.
by Nathan Hill
Published 2017
A hilarious and deeply touching debut novel about a son, the mother who left him as a child, and how his search to uncover the secrets of her life leads him to reclaim his own.
Life is the garment we continually alter, but which never seems to fit.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
