Naked Lunch (first published as The Naked Lunch) is a 1959 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. The novel does not follow a clear linear plot, but is instead structured as a series of non-chronological "routines". Many of these routines follow William Lee, an opioid addict who travels to the surreal city of Interzone and begins working for the organization "Islam Inc."

Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch while living in the Tangier International Zone, which inspired the book's Interzone setting. There, he witnessed escalating tensions between European powers and the Moroccan Nationalist Movement, which are reflected in Interzone's fictional political struggles. Burroughs also struggled with opioid addiction, which the novel describes extensively, although critics disagree whether the novel uses opioids as a metaphor for broader forms of control.

The novel was highly controversial for its depictions of drug use, sadomasochism, and body horror, including a famous description of a man's talking anus taking over his body. The book was considered obscene by the United States Postal Service, the state of Massachusetts, and the city of Los Angeles, each leading to separate legal challenges. In the Massachusetts trial, now recognized as a landmark censorship case, defense attorney Edward de Grazia called writers such as Allen Ginsberg, John Ciardi, and Norman Mailer to testify to the book's literary merit. Although the court initially ruled the book was in fact obscene, this decision was overturned by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which allowed the book to be sold.

Naked Lunch has received a divided critical response. The book's admirers have compared it to the satires of Jonathan Swift and the religious works of Dante Alighieri and Hieronymous Bosch. Its detractors have compared it to pornography, often calling it monotonous and boring. The book has been considered dystopian science fiction, postmodern, parodic, and picaresque. Its experimental techniques have been highly influential on rock music and the cyberpunk genre. Naked Lunch is considered one of the defining texts of the Beat Generation.

In 1923, European powers established the Tangier International Zone in Northern Morocco. To ensure the area's neutrality, the Zone was overseen by representatives from multiple European nations alongside the sultan of Morocco. This government was unable to effectively regulate drugs or prostitution, and American residents were not subject to Moroccan laws.

William S. Burroughs moved to the Tangier International Zone in 1954, shortly after the publication of his first novel Junkie. Burroughs was attracted by the zone's reputation for allowing drug use and homosexuality, as portrayed in the works of Paul Bowles, and declared his intention to "steep myself in vice". In Tangier, Burroughs became severely addicted to Eukodal, eventually using the drug every two hours. He had previously been addicted to heroin while writing Junkie. Burroughs also began a sexual relationship with a teenage boy named Kiki, which would last until Kiki's death in September 1957.

In May 1954, Burroughs began work on what would become Naked Lunch. He mailed his early drafts to his friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were the core members of the Beat Generation along with Burroughs himself. In a letter to Ginsberg, Burroughs explicitly identified Interzone as a stand-in for the Tangier International Zone. However, the novel's Interzone is also closely related to the fictional "Composite city" Burroughs described in his earlier The Yage Letters, which he wrote before visiting Tangier.

While living in Tangier, Burroughs witnessed violent clashes between Moroccan nationalists and French authorities over its political status. Burroughs did not take a strong stance on the conflict, at one point calling himself "the most politically neutral man in Africa". He defended the riots as just and denounced the brutality of European imperialism, but worried about the impact of Islamic rule on individual freedom.