Publisher's Synopsis
The Truth about Sadia explores how the use of alcohol and hard drugs can lead to the development of mental illness. It recounts the life from childhood to middle-age of a beautiful, talented Nigerian woman, Sadia Onaolapo Oyelowo who must endure tragedy to realise the person she is: strong, resourceful and, above all, a survivor. Her husband, Mofeoluwa Ayowumi Bolarinwa is not of sound mind and is inclined to go off the rails in fits of abnormal and strange behaviours following alcohol and drug binges, for which he is hospitalised at a psychiatric hospital. Each time he is treated and gets better, he returns to the use of the drugs which in turn triggers a relapse. Inevitably, and despite Sadia's best efforts, the marriage breaks down and she is forced to raise their only child as a single mother in Lagos surviving on a teacher's salary. It is a rich, multi-layered novel that does not shy away from delving into the seamier sides of modern Nigerian life in a Lagos rife with contradictions and, above all, the energy for which the city is famous. Indeed, the city is as much a presence in the novel as the characters especially the two main characters who must reconcile their separate destinies against the city's contradictions.
This is a novel for our times, warts and all.
