The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a 2025 dark comedic novel by Rabih Alameddine which recounts six decades in the life of a Lebanese family. It won the 2025 National Book Award for fiction.
It has a non-linear format, told through a series of nested stories through the eyes of a gay 63-year-old philosophy teacher who confronts his past, his relationship with his mother, and his homeland. It covers the Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon's 2019 liquidity crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 port explosion in Beirut, which killed more than 200 and injured thousands more.
Contents I (2023)
II (2001 - 2021) The Banking Crisis The Covid Pandemic
III (1960 - 1975) Pre-Civil War
IV (1975) The Civil War
V (1975-2021) The Port Explosion
VI (2021) Virginia
VII (2025)
Origins The book is inspired in part by Alameddine's own relationship with his aging mother, who was losing her memory.
Footnotes
Sources Alameddine, Rahib. 2025. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother). Grove Press, New York.