# The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
*The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)* is a novel by the Lebanese American writer Rabih Alameddine, published by [Grove Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/grove-press) on September 2, 2025, and winner of the 2025 [National Book Award for Fiction](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-book-award-for-fiction)[1](https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/) • [2](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD12237669). Set in Beirut, it tells the story of Raja, a 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher living with his octogenarian mother Zalfa, and moves across six decades of Lebanese history[3](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Rabih Alameddine, author of *An Unnecessary Woman*, *Koolaids*, *The Angel of History*, and others[4](https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/) |
| Publication | Grove Press, September 2, 2025; first Grove Atlantic hardcover edition, 336 pages, ISBN 9780802166470[2](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD12237669) |
| Award | Winner, 2025 National Book Award for Fiction[1](https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/) |
| Place in career | Alameddine's seventh novel[3](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut) |
| Setting and scope | Beirut across six decades: the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the Covid pandemic, Lebanon's 2019 banking crisis, and the 2020 Beirut port explosion, framed by openings and closing scenes in 2023[3](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut) |
| Narrator | Raja, a beloved high-school philosophy teacher, occasional drag queen, and author of one book; his mother Zalfa demands every detail of his work and love life[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/) |
| Structure | Chapters dated to the eras of Lebanese crises, from pre-civil war years through 2023[6](https://catalog.nwacc.edu/bib/52272) |
## Plot and structure
Raja lives in a tiny Beirut apartment beside his mother Zalfa, who treats his desire for privacy as a personal affront. He is a beloved high-school philosophy teacher, known locally as "the neighborhood homosexual," and he relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude[7](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_True_True_Story_of_Raja_the_Gullible.html?id=Yfh-EQAAQBAJ). The action is set in motion by an invitation to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in the United States, which arrives after a series of personal and national disasters and leads Raja to recount the very events he wishes to forget[7](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_True_True_Story_of_Raja_the_Gullible.html?id=Yfh-EQAAQBAJ).
The book opens and closes in 2023 but burrows backward through Raja's memory: the lead-up to and aftermath of the [Lebanese Civil War](https://www.edgepedia.org/lebanese-civil-war), the Covid pandemic, Lebanon's 2019 banking crisis, and the 2020 [Beirut](https://www.edgepedia.org/beirut) port explosion[3](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut). A library catalog summary lists its contents as dated chapters running from 1960–1975 (pre-civil war), through the 1975 civil war, the 2001–2021 banking collapse and Covid pandemic, the 2020 port explosion, and a 2021 visit to Virginia, before returning to 2023[6](https://catalog.nwacc.edu/bib/52272).
## The kidnapping and the mother
The novel's emotional core is Raja's wartime kidnapping, an event he has spent decades refusing to tell, even to himself. During the civil war the 15-year-old Raja was captured by mistake by a militiaman, a high-school classmate, who had been trying to take some wealthier boys hostage; the memory eventually bursts out and becomes the centerpiece of the book[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/). In captivity, held underground in a makeshift bunker, Raja fell for his captor, Boodie, who fed and tended to him while keeping him dependent, a relationship Alameddine writes as one in which care and abuse coexist without canceling each other out[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/). Boodie also insisted Raja cross-dress, a detail tied to the familial homophobia that shaped Raja's life; his mother, by contrast, chose her child over public opinion and her own marriage, and their bond becomes by far the closest one either of them has[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/).
In the present, the two threads converge. Boodie, now Americanized as "Buddy," turns out to be behind the mysterious American arts fellowship and wants forgiveness and a romantic resolution, which Raja refuses, rejecting the redemption arc his former captor wants to tell[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/).
## Themes and style
Drag functions as a central metaphor informing both the story and the novel's layered structure[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/). Raja's voice, described in reviews as irresistibly buoyant and unapologetically camp, holds on to its cheer in the face of sobering material; the Guardian reviewer Yagnishsing Dawoor called it a rule-breaking spin on the trauma plot in which the pain of the past need overwhelm neither present nor narrative[3](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut). [Kirkus Reviews](https://www.edgepedia.org/kirkus-reviews) described the book as "a sharp exploration of resilience in dark times" and noted Alameddine's talent for finding humor in traumatic themes, applying it here to the civil war, Covid-19, Lebanon's banking collapse, and the port explosion[8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rabih-alameddine/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/).
A distinctive device is Raja's Japanese. He learned the language from his upstairs neighbors as a teenager, finding their apartment a place of respite, and later wrote about embattled Beirut in Japanese to dissociate from his surroundings; the book that made him famous abroad began as Japanese practice, not a work intended for publication[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/).
## Critical reception
The novel won the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction, awarded at the 76th National Book Awards in New York in November 2025[1](https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/) • [9](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2026/02/07/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-a-deeply-human-novel-of-reckoning-and-love/). Reviewers were largely positive: the Book Marks aggregator collected eight reviews of the book[10](https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/), and the Irish Times called it "a deeply human novel of reckoning and love"[9](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2026/02/07/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-a-deeply-human-novel-of-reckoning-and-love/). Writing in *The Atlantic*, Lily Meyer praised the humor but judged the closing movement too neat, observing that Raja's embrace of anger reads almost like a happily-ever-after[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/).
## Editions
Grove Atlantic's hardcover of 336 listed pages carried a US list price of $28.00, with a paperback (352 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-6843-6) at $18.00 announced for September 1, 2026[4](https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/). The UK edition, published under the Corsair imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, went on sale on February 12, 2026, at £22[11](https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/rabih-alameddine-2/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/9781472160515/). An unabridged audiobook, about 8 hours and 38 minutes long, was released by Simon & Schuster Audio on September 2, 2025[12](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8daae8d2-401d-4eda-ac4f-f669c325726f/editions).
## References
1. [The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), National Book Foundation](https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/)
2. [CiNii Books catalog record for the first Grove Atlantic hardcover edition](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD12237669)
3. [Yagnishsing Dawoor, review in The Guardian, February 12, 2026](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/12/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-review-drag-fabulousness-in-war-torn-beirut)
4. [The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), Grove Atlantic](https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/)
5. [Lily Meyer, "The Writer Fueled by Life's Randomness," The Atlantic, December 24, 2025](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/12/rabih-alameddine-true-true-story-raja-gullible-book-review/685432/)
6. [Pauline Whitaker Library catalog record, contents listing](https://catalog.nwacc.edu/bib/52272)
7. [Google Books entry, Grove Press, 2025](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_True_True_Story_of_Raja_the_Gullible.html?id=Yfh-EQAAQBAJ)
8. [Kirkus Reviews, starred review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rabih-alameddine/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/)
9. [Sally Hayden, review in The Irish Times, February 2026](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2026/02/07/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother-by-rabih-alameddine-a-deeply-human-novel-of-reckoning-and-love/)
10. [Book Marks review aggregation](https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/)
11. [Hachette UK (Corsair) edition page](https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/rabih-alameddine-2/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/9781472160515/)
12. [The StoryGraph editions list](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8daae8d2-401d-4eda-ac4f-f669c325726f/editions)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Prose works by nation, language, and period › Prose works by nation and language › American and Canadian novels*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license