Bħal f`Dizzjunarju (As in a Dictionary), a new novel by Alfred Sant, will be launched during the Malta National Book Fair at the Mediterranean Conference Centre on Saturday.

Bħal f’Dizzjunarju follows the life and career of Anġlu Debono during the past 40 years. The reader is by his side during some of the most disturbing episodes of his childhood.

We follow him on travels to Rome and London among others, on work assignments and on holiday. With him, we tramp through crowds of noisy people getting drunk, band music and a blistering sun during a morning festa parade in the middle of summer.

There are career and family problems… And with Debono, the reader remembers or gets to know some of the developments in Malta since Independence… but this happens on the side and in quiet, for Debono always preferred to keep away from polemics.

All he wanted to do was to live life his way, while spending time and devoting himself to his major pursuit… writing…

Bħal f’Dizzjunarju is the first novel in Maltese that can be read in any order, so that one can start it and continue reading at any point. Whether one takes it up at the opening or at midpoint will make no difference when following the storyline.

For as indicated by its title, the novel hitches the life of the main character, Anġlu Debono, to a breathless carousel of memories and episodes placed one after the other in a sequence like they were coming out of a dictionary.

Bħal f’Dizzjunarju is expected to make quite an impact on the reading public.

• Dr Sant will be signing copies of the novel during the launch at 10.30 a.m.