Dear readers, On Wednesday, five authors and one translator received National Book Awards. Rabih Alameddine won in fiction for his novel “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)”; Omar El Akkad received the nonfiction prize for his latest book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This.” (Here is the full list of winners, along with a thorough write-up of the ceremony.) El Akkad’s book is a cri de coeur about the West’s response to the devastation in Gaza, and he recognized the inherent tension in receiving an award for something rooted in profound moral anguish. “It’s very difficult to think in celebratory terms about a book that was written in response to a genocide,” El Akkad said in his acceptance speech. Politics were top of mind for many of the winners and finalists Wednesday evening. “Even had I not won, I would’ve been happy because Omar won,” Alameddine said in a phone interview this morning. “His book is incredible, his speech was superb, and he saved my butt because he said many of the things I wanted to say and was so eloquent.” Alameddine’s novel follows a high school philosophy teacher in his 60s, who is known as “the neighborhood homosexual” and teaches at his alma mater. He and his mother share an apartment in Beirut, and attempt to navigate the peculiarities of their relationship in rather tight quarters. It is a loving rapport — but also obsessive, hysterical, all consuming in the manner of many Lebanese families. (I speak from experience.) He’d previously been a finalist for the prize, for his 2014 novel, “An Unnecessary Woman.” (If you’re new to Alameddine’s work, I regularly recommend that novel to any serious book lover.) “Raja the Gullible” pulls freely from a number of sources. Alameddine’s sister is a beloved philosophy teacher, and one of the inciting images of the novel came from a Korean short story that reminded him of how he used to dance growing up in Lebanon. Soon, his associative thinking took him to the underworld, and eventually to Greek myth. “Once you have Persephone you have Demeter,” he said. “And once the mother came in to the story, she took over.” Like this email? We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
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