This month we will be reading
The True True Story of Rajathe Gullible (and His Mother)
by Rabin Alameddine

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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. (National Book Award Fiction 2025)
We hope you will join us to discuss this award-winning novel.
In July we will continue our theme of America and the Middle East with Everyone Will
Have Always Been Against This by Omar Akkad.