True to his irreverent style, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) thanks his psychiatrist, his gastrointestinal doctors and his drug dealers
Rabih Alameddine has won the National book award for fiction for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), a darkly comic saga spanning six decades in the life of a Lebanese family.
The novel, which traverses a sprawling history of Lebanon including its civil war and economic collapse, is told through the eyes of its titular protagonist: a gay 63-year-old philosophy teacher confronting his past and his relationship with his mother and his homeland.
True to his irreverent style, Alameddine, on stage, thanked his psychiatrist, his gastrointestinal doctors and his drug dealers. “I shouldn’t say more about that,” he cracked.
Elsewhere in his acceptance speech, Alameddine reckoned with crises in both Gaza and the US.
