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

Rabih Alameddine · b. 1959 · Lebanon / United States

Why it matters

A hapless son's account of his own credulity tangles with his formidable mother's schemes and half-truths, comedy shadowed by Lebanon's long unraveling. Alameddine's National Book Award winner is unreliable narration and family myth-making at their most entertaining.

At a glance

Self-interrupting, digressive narration plays games with its own reliability.