The Center for Fiction Presents Rabih Alameddine on The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) with John Freeman

Wednesday, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:15 pm EDT September 10, 2025

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

Raja jacket art

Rabih Alameddine, award-winning author of The Wrong End of the Telescope, joins us to celebrate the release of his new novel, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother).

Wildly original and wickedly funny, Alameddine’s latest explores the profound bond between a mother and son across decades. Set in Lebanon, the story is told in the unforgettable voice of Raja, a beloved philosophy teacher and “the neighborhood homosexual.” When Raja embarks on a writing residency in America, he gains long-sought distance from both personal and national turmoil. But his journey soon compels him to confront the past, weaving a powerful narrative of memory, identity, and resilience.

Author and editor John Freeman, who co-edited the forthcoming Penguin Book of the International Short Story with Alameddine, joins Alameddine for a compelling discussion of this tragicomic love story. After the event, Alameddine will sign books.

Raja jacket art

In Conversation

Featured Book

  1. . 
    Raja jacket art

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

    By Rabih Alameddine

    Published by Grove/Atlantic

    PURCHASE

    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.

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