The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
A Novel (National Book Award Winner)
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- 15,99 €
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- 15,99 €
Descripción editorial
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
“Alameddine is a writer with a boundless imagination.”—NPR
From the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother
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 longing 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alameddine chronicles a Lebanese family's turbulent but happy lives in his ebullient latest (after The Wrong End of the Telescope). Narrator Raja, 63, shares an apartment in Beirut with his mother, with whom he's very close. With disarming charm, he reflects on their recent challenges, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Lebanon's banking collapse. Raja, who is gay, maintains a similar tone when describing his older brother, Farouk, a family man with whom he's often at odds: "My brother was as transparent as a piece of glass, only not as smart." Raja also delves into his life-threatening experiences during the 1975 civil war, including when he was held captive by a soldier named Boodie, whom Raja won over by teaching him to dance. Often Raja's adventures turn out badly, but in his telling he manages to come out on top. For instance, 30 years earlier, when he was a schoolteacher, he had sex with a man who then tried to blackmail him, threatening to out him to his colleagues. It amuses Raja now to remember that the man didn't believe him when he claimed that everyone knew he was gay, including his mother. Throughout, the author skillfully juxtaposes unflinching depictions of war and deprivation with the narrator's joie de vivre. It's a ravishing performance.
