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Contemporary literature
Contemporary literature
Storying one’s history
Fehmiet u Għarfien. Alfred Sant (Quinque, 2024). There are authors whose work tends to become personal to us as their readers, especially in terms of how we read them and how in turn they attract our attention. I say, “read them” (rather than just “reading their books”) because here these authors’ work becomes...
Contemporary literature
To reap or cull what hope remains
'Il-Ħsad tal-Peprin: Poeżiji għal Gaża.' David Aloisio, John P. Portelli (eds.) (Horizons 2024). Dedicated to the children of Gaza—the only hope left for Palestine—forty poems by forty Maltese authors make up this powerful book. Framing what I would call a memorial to the humanity of those whom the world conveniently ignores—the innocent people caught in the...
Contemporary literatureStories
A lot to say, but maybe not enough said
George Vella’s presidential tenure took him to task with even more challenges than he would ever anticipate. Book review: ‘George Vella. Il-President li għandu ħafna xi jgħid’, Andrew Azzopardi (ed.) (Kite 2024) In its nuanced ways, the Maltese language has a habit of playing tricks on us. Upon hearing “għandi xi ngħid” it is never clear whether one iskeen to vent off, tell...
Contemporary literature
Sad Chat 😢
"I lifted the car hood. I stared a few moments at the engine, and succumbed to the devil that drives us to peep into strangers’ lives." I’m 34 and I’ve never been with a woman. My sister, she’s twelve years younger, once asked. When I said I’m not a virgin she looked me in the eyes. She didn’t believe it before she even asked. So why ask? I’m sure she told mama too. Greg Robson pulled up at the door...
Contemporary literature
Nostalgic melancholia
'Time... and Time Again', a poetry collection in English by Charles Flores (HORIZONS) Poetry, according to William Wordsworth (himself no mean practitioner of the art) is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility… it is the breadth and spirit of all knowledge.” “Emotion recollected...
Contemporary literatureEuropean UnionVoices
Of sins and prophecies
Accompanying Sammy Meilaq on the campaign to show that Malta’s neutrality is too precious to abandon in the laps of professional politicians. L-Aħħar Testment ta’ Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – Dnubiet u Profeziji (2023), written by Sammy Meilaq, could hardly have seen the light in a more apt time than that of the latest round of mass scale slaughter of thousands of Palestinians entrapped in the largest open-air...
Contemporary literature
The adopted family
This short story is a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s opus ‘A Doll’s House’. This short story is a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s opus ‘A Doll’s House’. Sequels to it must be numerous but they are in script for the stage. This is in prose. And, whereas most others, if not all, adopt the theme of what became of Nora Helmer, this sequel takes up...
Contemporary literature
The North-Easterly
Nikos’s day will come too. We’re in no hurry. It’s only till we meet again. Time does not matter here; we don’t have any. We’ll show Nikos round our corner of our new world once he’s here. Our home in Skaramagas stood aloof of its surroundings, at the end of a steep...
Contemporary literature
Starting all over
The elevator descended, and I thought no woman would have given my apartment the once-over Emma did unless it mattered to her how a few decorative touches would enliven it. I never thought I’d find a decent job again. I was forty-four. I lost my previous one because...
Contemporary literature
The Getaway
Up late again. At eleven. Nothing to tumble out of bed for early on a weekend getaway planned to escape grief, promising nothing but the comfort of unknown faces. I took a shower, pulled on my bikini bottom, denim shorts over it, and a beach vest. I...
Contemporary literature
I can walk with you
I wracked my brain on how to break the ice a second time. Post-coital conversation can be awkward too. “What’s your name?” she asked. “Liam.” A few long moments elapsed. “Do you spend all your evenings here, Liam?” “I may start to.” “Then I will too!” “What’s your...
Contemporary literature
Stiletto in the Sand
Leah must have walked into the sea that night. Or to the end of the beach to lay her body down on the sands, for the waters to carry her out to the bay in her sleep. I will never know which, but no one ever saw her again. Jake and I ran across each other the second...