Klabb Kotba Maltin has released a trilogy by Oliver Friggieri.
The novel seeks to reconstruct life in Malta as a British colony
Entitled Hekk Tħabbat il-Qalb Maltija, the book is made up of the bestselling novels It-Tfal Jiġu bil-Vapuri, La Jibbnazza Niġi Lura and Dik id-Dgħajsa f’Nofs il-Port.
The trilogy, on which the tele-serial It-Tfal Jiġu bil-Vapuri was based, forms one whole narrative. It depicts life in Malta in the early decades of the 20th century in great detail, and is set in a remote village and around the Grand Harbour, a centre of activity day and night.
The novel seeks to reconstruct life in Malta as a British colony, and to portray conflicts which occurred within the family, the village and Grand Harbour area, where contact with the foreign world was very important. Within this context the story of Susanna evolves, involving a number of people.
It-Tfal Jiġu bil-Vapuri, La Jibbnazza Niġi lura and Dik id-Dgħajsa f’Nofs il-Port, now published as one volume, can all be read on their own. Each novel is autonomous from the other two, but written to constitute a part of a trilogy.
The story is set within a family which experiences the birth of a child out of wedlock. Social and religious conflicts give rise to a series of events, the main victim of which is Dun Grejbel, a saintly priest who is grossly misunderstood by the community and the Church authority.
He pays a very high price for this. Susanna, the young unmarried mother, goes through a lot of suffering, but her mother, the supreme grandmother and moral leader of the extended family, manages to put things in order.
Whereas the first two novels deal extensively with the older generation, Dik id-Dgħajsa f’Nofs il-Port delves mainly into the way Wistin, the son of Susanna, now a youth, is searching for his roots.
He is trying to form an image of his father, Stiefnu, who is remote from him as he earns his living in the Grand Harbour as a bambott (a reference to a boat carrying provisions to ships in port); and his mother Susanna, totally faithful to her own mother Katarina, the epitome of tradition and continuity. Most of this work seeks to depict the conflict between tradition and modernism in contemporary Malta.
Friggieri says: ‘‘I have tried to depict the past in order to better understand what is happening now to the family. The novel is all about the family structure, here and now, and basically concerns the role of the mother and the grandmother.
“My novels have convinced me that the best way to discover the present is to unearth the mysteries of the past.
“A lot of nostalgia creeps in, but it is all nostalgia about the present and the future. This trilogy tries to convey a message to youths who are in search of stability through love and personal relations.
“They will here realise that the present challenges facing them are more complex than those of decades ago, and that love is the most important value. It means it has got a very high price. It has to be earned. No easy job at all.’’
Friggieri, professor of literature at the University, is the author of numerous books, more than 50 of which have been published in foreign countries.
His novels and short stories have been translated into numerous languages. He writes in Maltese, English and Italian.
Hekk Tħabbat il-Qalb Maltija is published as a special edition of the Klabb Kotba Maltin series. The volume, comprising more than 700 pages, is elegantly printed by Gutenberg Press in hardbound format and is on sale at Klabb Kotba Maltin (Santa Venera) and all leading booksellers.