HALF TRUTH by Nadia Mahjouri

A novel that traverses the cultural divide and global distance than is overcome in the name of family.

The debut novel of Australian-Moroccan author Nadia Mahjouri, Half Truth is based on her own experience of travelling to Marrakech to search for her biological father and, in the process, connecting with Moroccan relatives. One of my dreams is to visit Morocco, which alongside the glowing recommendation of the book by

Bri Lee

, made it was an easy choice to read. I am so pleased I did.

The main character is Zahra, a young woman raised in Tasmania by her Australian mother, absent of her father, a Moroccan man (who in the book is named Ahmed). Zahra is in her very early twenties, living with her boyfriend Jacob (who from the get-go had drainer/loser vibes) and new to motherhood. Zahra’s mother, Maggie, has not told her much about her father, why they split up or Zahra’s Moroccan family. However, Zahra’s curiousity is piqued and she loads up her infant son and travels to Marrakech in the hope of finding her father there.

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The story also tells the story of Khadija, Zahra’s grandmother and Ahmed’s mother, and how she came to be married to Hamid and living in Marrakech, her evolution into a wife and mother, and what led to Ahmed ultimately leaving Marrakech.

I don’t want to divulge more of the plot than that, because the way they come together is key to the story’s climax. The stories are interwoven, switching from chapter to chapter, between passages of time in the early to late 1970’s for Khajida and the late 1990’s, when Zahra travels to Morocco.

What I can say is that Half Truths is a novel that really gets under your skin (in a good way!). It is warm and soothing in many ways - I cannot pretend I do not want to go and be adopted by some Marrakechi women - and in other ways it is profoundly sad. I can only imagine how Zahra (and Nadia herself) felt to discover a completely new side of her own cultural heritage and to find a place in that culture, and be immediately loved. As a reader, it was a beautifully immersive experience.

I also loved reading about Marrakech and Zahra’s experience there - at the beginning, for a young woman alone with a baby, it no doubt had moments of immense challenge, but Zahra settles in quickly. If I were travelling to Morocco, it would likely be alone, too, so I took some mental notes and really tried to be realistic in my thinking about what that experience might be like. On the other hand, Zahra’s experience was at the turn of the millenium, so no doubt there have been some changes.

One thing I wished for more of was background on the Amazigh people (also known as Berber’s but I learned in this novel that is something of a slight to some people, so I won’t use it again). These unique and fascinating people are Zahra’s ancestors, and I would have loved to learn more, particularly about the Amazigh women. What is contained in the pages was fascinating and, in some senses, empowering.

The only character I didn’t like was Jacob. I assume Jacob is based on a real person and I hope the real person is not the absolute idiot that Jacob is, in Half Truth. His character, however, is part of Zahra’s evolution and thus I understand his presence, but he certainly didn’t endear himself to this particular reader.

Mahjouri’s writing is exquisite - I hope she has more novels in her because she can write. I also enjoyed Zahra’s growth as a new mother and the growth she showed in seeing, with some time and distance, that Jacob was not a good match or partner for her. This was a book I hated putting down as I was invested in what would come next.

Half Truths is a wonderful read and I look forward to more from Nadia Mahjouri.

You can find her website here.

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