Alfred Sant’s latest collection of short stories, Western, Bejn Rakkonti, Bejn Divertimenti will be launched on Friday during a literary soirée in which excerpts from the main story, Western, and others included in this anthology will be dramatised.

Sant presents the Maltese Everyman known only as il-Malti, a modest worker from Qormi who in the 1860s gives up his life of farming to emigrate to the United States where he moves in with the widow of the thug of Godsum Creek.

The woman’s husband is presumed dead after he had gone to fight in the US-Mexican War of 1846-1848.

The stories in Western can be read as simple narratives, in which people try to make the best of their lives. At another level, many of them can be read as reflections on the Maltese condition, now and in the past.

Sant varies his style and stretches imaginary possibilities as he seeks points of contact between the literature of “the working people” and more exclusive works aimed at the more demanding reader. This anthology shows him experimenting with the mysterious and the macabre and delving into the delusion between lovers, the limitations of hidebound communities and science fiction.

Albert Marshall will introduce the literary excerpts which will be interpreted by Sean Buhagiar.

■ The launch is taking place on Friday at 7pm at Fortress Builders in Valletta. The author will be in attendance and will sign copies of his new publication. A reception will follow the literary evening. Entrance is free.