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

By: Rabih Alameddine

Narrated by: GM Hakim

“Alameddine is a writer with a boundless imagination.” —NPR

From National Book Award finalist and 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.

Critic reviews

"GM Hakim narrates this witty, introspective audiobook set in Beirut, Lebanon. Raja, a gay 60-something teacher, lives in a cramped apartment with his opinionated mother, Zalfa. Raja’s relationship with Zalfa is complex and tumultuous—but full of love. Zalfa’s politically active life throws a wrench into Raja’s quiet one. When he’s offered a mysterious artist’s residency in America, he reflects on the heartbreak and humiliation he’s experienced in the last six decades. As Raja recounts the extreme circumstances he encountered during the Lebanese Civil War and the COVID-19 pandemic, Hakim narrates in a conversational style. His even pace and clear pronunciation create a fully immersive listening experience."

Honest

Excellent eye-opening view of Beirut & a life of a gay man coming of age in a homophobic culture.

“F&$@ Your Mother”

Enjoyed enormously-the relationship between mother and son is most interesting and for me, enlightening.

The voices and how well they revealed the characters

What a ride! How life could switch from a familiar chaos to terror in an instant was well done.

Good book, merely passable reader

I wanted to be enveloped by the story, but the reader kept getting in the way. He was overly expressive when calm was called for, listless when energy would have been best. And please, don’t assign an actor who can’t pronounce “Yves” when that character’s name appears again and again at a central scene of the book.

Just a great book!

I got this book because it won the national book award for this year. It is a funny, sad, historical, view on the human existence told from 1 man's perspective taking place in Beirut Lebanon. The book is witty, real, and full of feelings. It addresses screwed up family dynamics, as well as life under a corrupt unstable government, including experiencing life with war lords, local malicious, shortages of food, electric, and all the things we take for granted. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.