The launching of Tliet Nisa u Mara by Mariella Pisani Bencini at the Manoel Theatre Foyer last Thursday week was an unexpectedly unique experience.

I heard Stephanie Farrugia and Monica Mintoff reading passages from the novel and was immediately struck by the energy in the flow of the writing; but that is not all - intense femininity runs through the novel, like a recurrent theme in a musical work, sometimes calm and quiet, sometimes full of pain and anguish.

I went home and began to read the novel. Now I am half-way through. NCW congratulates Mariella, full of hope that this novel is the first of more to come.