The latest collection of tales by Alfred Sant, Ċpar, offers a follow-up to his bestselling collection from four years ago, Pupu fil-Baħar. As in the latter, the new tales create a climate of uncertainty about what the main characters are doing.
The leitmotif of uncertainity that runs through all the stories reflects the ways by which, according to Sant, people remember their own history, from prehistoric and legendary times, to the European Middle Ages or to the farthest future when men will have colonised the remotest reaches of space.
Even today’s humdrum problems, like the parking and traffic congestion, in Sant’s stories become part of a land of mist.
The new selection of tales carries forward the questions created in Pupu, for which a strong demand has persisted. Readers still ask: was the doll in the water a real doll or was it a person? However, the stories in Ċpar open up new mysteries.
Every tale will spur the readers to ask a number of questions. Who removed the bearings on the wheels of the bowser that crashed into the old woman and killed her? As a massive demonstration picks up in the centre of the city, where do the seven men who assemble for a quiet meal in a deserted restaurant come from? What are they waiting for? What has driven Carabott to hide in the White Bay, off the town of Almeira? Is he running from something or towards something?
Why does Joyce find it so difficult to pierce through the defences of Klara, now an old lady, but formerly a leading drama director, as she tries to find more about a forgotten writer who seems to have disappeared?
Then there is the story about the mysterious death of Thomas Aquinas – how did he really die at the height of his powers?
Based on historical events, the story Fossa Nuova seems to show that there was more to the death than has since been claimed.
With his stories, Sant stimulates the curiosity of the readers, challenging them to try and understand what is taking place inside the mist, where people hide to screen their real intentions.
Ċpar is published by SKS Publishers.