The True True Story of Raja the Gullible and His Mother

<p><b>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</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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, <i>The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)</i> is a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.</p>