Praise for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)

Winner of the National Book Award
Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
One of TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2025
One of NPR's Books We Love of 2025
One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Audiobooks of 2025
One of the Washington Independent Review of Books's Favorite Books of 2025
One of the Globe and Mail's 100 Best Books of 2025
One of BookPage's Best Fiction Books of 2025
One of Shelf Awareness's Best Books of 2025
One of Apple's Best Books of 2025

"This sprawling tale centers on Raja, a man in his sixties who lives with his mother in Beirut, a city shaking with political and ecological turmoil. While the duo-both outsized personalities--navigate their cohabitation, Raja must weigh the responsibility he feels as a son against an opportunity to attend a writing residency in America. 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

"Thoroughly absorbing."--Washington Post

"This book--winner of the 2025 National Book Award for fiction--feels like sitting down with an old friend who is a brilliant storyteller. It's an amusing and beautifully written portrait of a mother and her middle-aged son that lingers long after you finish it. Rabih Alameddine's prose is so warm and vivid that you can almost hear him talking to you as you read. I loved his tender, nuanced portrayal of Raja's prying mother, Zalfa, and how he captures the complicated bond between mothers and their children."--Linah Mohammad, producer, All Things Considered

"Rabih Alameddine returns to Beirut, Lebanon as the volatile, beloved setting and muse for his new novel, the enticingly titled The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) . . . And though the novel bears witness to the indignities of the city of Beirut and its citizens, there is ebullience throughout this account, a devil-may-care delight in the act of telling . . . The momentum the title creates never lets up, and Alameddine, through Raja, delivers a tragic yet exuberant tale steeped in the experience of living Lebanese."--Winnipeg Free Press

"A tightrope walk, a magic trick . . . magnificently articulated through the instrument of Raja's voice."--Alta

"Hilarious, seasoned with history, and utterly brilliant."--Bay Area Reporter

"Rabih Alameddine's edgy charm always leaves room for compassion, which readers will find in abundance in this challenging but exceptional book."--BookPage (starred review)

"I can think of few novelists more skilled in the art of blending deep trauma with irreverent humor than Rabih Alameddine. You're so damn charmed by the irascible charisma of his narrators--by their wicked bite and breezy self-deprecation and gimlet eyes--that you'll let them ferry you to the most heartbreaking and harrowing of places. Raja the Gullible is another tragicomic triumph."--Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub

"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 Lebane