The Iscariot Field
by Alfred Sant.
PEG, pp498,
ISBN: 9789995700171

Alfred Sant’s novel L-Għalqa tal-Iskarjota was so well received by the public that it was sold out in a couple of weeks. Two years later, a new English translation of the novel has now been published and once again copies are selling fast.

The Iscariot Field was described by critics as a comedy horror novel because it incorporates and combines the elements of horror and black humour. The combination of the two genres is a very bold and daring act, and this was one of the main reasons why the novel was treated well by literary circles and well-received by the public.

The novel opens with popular TV host and presenter Bertrand as he looks for Prof. Dillinger, a multi-disciplined academic. Bertrand manages to corner Dillinger as the latter is having a drink during an exhibition on Phoenician heritage. Bertrand asks for help in finding a historical site which, given its derelict state, can give the impression that it is haunted – this would then be used as stunning and scary material for an edition of his popular television programme Quis Quam.

Not only does the professor refuse to help him but he also accuses the presenter of abusing science in order to make a quick buck. Yet by the following day, the professor has already changed his mind. Bertrand, who trusts the professor blindly, accepts to dedicate a programme to a site which, bearing the title of the novel, is located in a small and uninhabited village called Znuber. According to the professor, this was an area which hosted a Phoenician temple.

Once Bertrand starts planning his programme, the story starts taking twists and turns and in the process creates an eerie sensation. Bertrand and his team discover that a person by the name of Jude Tonna had, some 150 years earlier, hanged himself in the Iscariot Field, after having played the role of Judas in an Easter pageant.

Another character, the parish priest, comes across as a weird man who celebrates Mass to an empty church, for the sake of the long-dead inhabitants of the village. Father Timmy’s reclusive nature also hints that he is hiding secrets.

Having caught the scent of such outstanding stories, Bertrand’s team get to work on the programme at once, knowing that the area can provide startling material on a story which can produce a disturbing effect among the viewers. However a problem crops up – the only remaining inhabitants of the village, the Tonna family who are also descendants of Jude Tonna, become hostile to the TV crew as their presence is considered threatening.

Prof. Dillinger joins Bertrand’s team but instead of helping Bertrand, becomes immersed in his own studies about the field. But Prof. Dillinger is not the typical historian – he is a strange academic who uses highly-advanced technological equipment to study things which in the real academic world would be defined as supernatural.

Eventually the plot becomes more complicated when it becomes clear that the Tonnas are involved in the dirty business of selling chickens which are fed on rats and dead bodies.

The story ends with a series of horrific incidents. The Secret Services end up at the Tonnas’ farm, water-boarding one of the Tonna brothers in order to confess, while Bertrand’s TV crew end up involved in the torture scene while touring the farm and looking for hidden secrets. After confessing the truth about their activities, another Tonna brother opens the cages of the malnourished rats which end up taking over the whole field until the army intervenes. For Bertrand and his crew, it is certainly not a happy ending.

The irony of a TV presenter who desperately creates hype and drama to mask his lack of proper journalistic talent is very clear, and the twist that sees the dramatic and horrible fantasies of Bertrand becoming real and eventually destroying him is a cunning ploy. However, The Iscariot Field can be read as too faithful to the closed text of a typical horror story, involving a character who is trespassing a peaceful habitat of supernatural beings, which then punish the trespasser for his excessive gluttony and curiosity.

Mr Camilleri is reading for a Masters in history at the University of Malta and was the editor of University-based newspaper Ir-Realtà.