03503cam a2200517 i 4500 2590481685 TxAuBib 20251015120000.0 250522s2025||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2025019666 9780802166470 hardcover 0802166474 hardcover (OCoLC)1528565572 TxAuBib rda Alameddine, Rabih, author. The true true story of Raja the Gullible (and his mother) / Rabih Alameddine. First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition. New York : Grove Press, 2025. 326 pages ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier "From the inimitable Rabih Alameddine-National Book Award finalist and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award-comes a tragicomic saga set in Lebanon, a modern story of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother. Across his oeuvre, Rabih Alameddine has distinguished himself as a master of the intimate and the political, celebrated for his caustic wit and "compelling, often jarring, blend of cynicism and hope" (The Economist). In this lively new work, Alameddine returns to Beirut-the setting of his breakout novel An Unnecessary Woman-and delivers a compulsively readable story of a winning duo navigating modern life in Lebanon. 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 itching 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"-- Provided by publisher. 20251015. Philosophy teachers Fiction. Gay men Fiction. Mothers and sons Fiction. Kidnapping victims Fiction. Stockholm syndrome Fiction. Gay men. fast LGBTQ+ people. homoit Sexual minorities. fast Philosophy teachers. fast Gay men. fast Mothers and sons. fast Kidnapping. fast Stockholm syndrome. fast Beirut (Lebanon) Fiction. Lebanon fast Beirut. Fiction. fast Domestic fiction. fast Novels. fast Gay fiction. fast LGBTQ+ fiction. homoit Domestic fiction. fast