Half Truth
By (Author) Nadia Mahjouri
Penguin Random House Australia
Penguin Random House Australia
11th February 2025
Australia
General
Fiction
Paperback
336
Width 154mm, Height 234mm, Spine 26mm
418g
A daughter searches for her father; a mother for her son. From isolated Tasmania to vibrant Morocco, two women seek the truth about what happened to the same man. Khadija is packing up her home of fifty years. In her thuja box of special belongings are the last reminders she has of her son Ahmed, missing for more than twenty years. Her belongings take her back to her village childhood, her marriage and move to Marrakesh, and the birth of Ahmed when Khadija was just thirteen. On the other side of the world in Cloudy Bay, Tasmania, twenty-two year old Zahra is in the throes of new motherhood and desperate for answers about her own identity. She decides to take her baby to Morocco and search for the father she has never known. The great poet Rumi told a story- the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. One day it fell and shattered, scattering pieces across the earth. Each person who found one believed they alone possessed the truth. When Zahra and Khadija's stories collide, truths await them in Morocco - giving Khadija the power to move on, and Zahra the courage to reshape herself into a mother and African Australian woman, ready to create a fulfilling life for her son and herself. A moving Moroccan Australian family drama charting families, motherhood and loss, identity and belonging.
Nadia Mahjouri is a Moroccan-Australian writer and mother of five, from nipaluna, lutruwita. She is a group facilitator and counsellor, specialising in perinatal mental health. Her professional background is in health policy, and academia, focusing on ethics and feminist philosophy. Her first novel Half Truth is inspired by her own experience searching for her family in Marrakech.