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 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 she was just thirteen.
In Cloudy Bay, Tasmania, 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. There she finds an extensive loving family and a culture ready to embrace her, but no father.
Zahra and Khadija’s stories collide – 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.
Our event space is wheelchair accessible via a stair lift. For any other accessibility questions, please email events@betterread.com.au.
Nadia Mahjouri is a Moroccan-Australian writer from nipaluna, lutruwita. She works as a group facilitator and counsellor, specialising in perinatal mental health. Her professional background is in health policy, governance 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. Previously, her work has been published in the anthology Emergence, Island online, Mamamia, and in feminist academic journal ‘thirdspace’ amongst others. She was awarded an Arts Tas ASA Mentorship, a lutruwita playwriting mentorship from Australian Plays Transform, a QWC Varuna Fellowship, and an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Creative Fellowship. Nadia and her husband have a messy happy blended family of five (three grown up’s who live elsewhere and two kids that live at home). She loves travelling to places she’s never been, cuddling babies, admiring flowers and drinking coffee with people that make her smile. As a writer, Nadia is committed to telling diverse women’s stories, and to sharing the untold realities of the complicated and beautiful lives we live.
Winnie Dunn is Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies including Sweatshop Women (2019) and Another Australia (2022). Winnie's debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders (2024).
