The Other Side of Truth is a novel by Beverley Naidoo that was published in 2000. It is a Young Adult novel which tells a story about the complexity of Nigerian politics during the reign of a notorious despot in the 1990s. The narrative tells a story that covers a sprawling canvas of themes related to war, freedom, and the power of a free press. These themes all converge around the story's primary theme, as indicated by the title, the essential importance of truth.
As seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Sade Solaja, the novel illustrates these themes and others through the horrific experience of the murder of her mother and the political oppression of her journalist father, Folarin. In fact, the novel begins with that accidental death of the wrongly targeted parent. The violent suppression of freedom by the tyrant ruling Nigeria with an iron fist is the engine fueling the story of immigrants finding themselves strangers in a strange land. The strangers are Sade and her younger brother. The strange land is London. It is the "stranger " aspect of this tale which transforms the novel into something more than just another fish-out-of-water refugee story.
Upon arriving in London, a series of unfortunate incidents wind up leaving the siblings not just alone in a society unlike their own back home, but abandoned and lost and forced to fend for themselves. After a series of harrowing situations, the two finally are reunited with family members who are able to help them bridge the gap between Nigerian and British cultures. It is only through the intervention of a famous British television journalist (partly based upon a real-life historical counterpart) that the two children are reunited with their father. The resolution of this reunion is left ambiguously open-ended on the state of her father's immigrant status.
This is very sophisticated narrative material covering quite significant subjects and themes ranging from political factionalism in Nigeria to xenophobia and racism in England. The storyline is built upon a foundation of complexity that is far beyond the full understanding of a pre-teen. It is precisely this conundrum—how to tell a story beyond the ability of a young person to really understand in a way that young readers will understand—which is the key to the novel's greatest strength.
Although conveyed in the third-person perspective, the point-of-view through which the events are seen is that of Sade. Truth as a fundamental requirement of civilized existence is fundamental to the story. Many characters speak of the truth, but none more clearly than Sade's mother who declares, "Truth keeps the hand cleaner than soap." The significance of this repetitive referencing to the importance of truth as the cleanser of societal interaction and discourse is that truth is a concept which defies age and experience. Children can sense the truth even when they don't fully understand or are being bombarded with confusing disinformation. This reality is the reason for the novel being told through the eyes of Sade. She is a young adult who is watching what is happening in a novel written for young adults. By reading the story through the eyes of a protagonist who is confused herself, the complexity of the events making up the narrative ironically comes across as less confusing to any reader unfamiliar with the novel's historical context.
