When author Rabih Alameddine accepted his National Book Award for Fiction on Wednesday night, he thanked his agent, his editor and early readers of his work. He also thanked his psychiatrist, his drug dealers and "all gastrointestinal doctors."

"I guarantee you that I wouldn't have been able to write a single word in the last 10 years without their help," he said. "There would have been no movement."

Alameddine won for his novel, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), which is about a philosophy teacher who lives with his aging and sharp-tongued mother.

Other winners similarly balanced the festive feeling of the night with heavier global concerns. Writer Omar El Akkad won the non-fiction prize for his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, which i

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