Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa

This is the story of Abigail. Actually, no. This is the story of Abigail’s relationships: Abigail and Aron; Abigail and Sonia; Abigail and Vince; and above all Abigail and her mother. Although, technically, this is the story of Abigail according to her mother.

Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa is a very poignant tale about the mother-daughter dynamics, an exploration, analysis of the maternal bond and its influence on the path of life for both the mother and the daughter. It starts off with an introduction which is so stark and so real that you feel that the author could easily have been in your house. The daughter – still little – is in the throes of a tantrum, crying and whining before she goes to school because the thread in the corner of her socks are bugging her. Little observations are described in a raw manner – such as little quirky details about pregnancy, or about the death of someone close, details that are can only catch the attention of a seasoned author – someone who lives life through the lure of the pen.

This is exactly was author Nadia Mifsud does. Her debut novel is so powerful that describing it as an emotional rollercoaster is a lame cliché. She zooms in with her mind camera and writes a plot based on people who lead a normal life, like you and I. And then takes that story and turns it into a relationship drama, full of suspense. Readers will be constantly gripped and asking what happened? Who? When? Where?

The language used in the book is straightforward but precise. The author ponders every consonant, thinks of the melody and rhythm of every single sentence. There are no frills, no grandiose language – just the language that you and I use everyday, only when under the spell of Mifsud it becomes poetic.

The rawness of Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa perhaps stems from the fact that the author comes from a family with a strong matrilineal narrative. “I grew up surrounded by women – I have these beautiful memories dating back to my childhood of four generations of women huddled in a small kitchen in Bormla, chatting away loudly, laughing, joking, teasing one another, and sometimes getting into arguments,” says Mifsud. Observing them individually but also in their interactions with each other was one of her favourite pastimes, and growing up in the midst of them she often tried to make sense of what each woman passed on to the next generation and figuring out what needed to be left behind.

Then, her daughters were born and she found herself “directly experiencing all the ambiguities of motherhood” and having to combine her personal story with all the literature and theories on feminism that “had nourished my student years”.

Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa was the winner of the #abbozz 2014 competition organised by Merlin Publishers. The book is for sale at all leading bookshops or directly from merlinpublishers.com Nadia Mifsud was born in Malta in 1976. At age 22, she moved to France where she completed her studies and started teaching English language and literature. She lives in Lyon and works as a literary translator. She has published two collections of poems Żugraga and Kantuneira ’I boghod and this is her debut novel. Her translation into French of Immanuel Mifsud’s latest novel, In the Name of the Father (and of the Son), was published by Gallimard, France in 2015.