Two families, one story

Vaganzi sajfin Author: Alfred Massa Publisher: Horizons / 2017 Extent: 223pp

The author is an affirmed novelist with a string of books to his name. Among the names I found, under a different publisher, are Rebbiegha kollha lwien; Weraq il-Harifa; It-Tfajla tal-bikini vjola and Taht il-Harruba.

The stories are all simple tales, based in a purified Malta of our times, with some romantic episodes thrown in. Basically simple tales with a bias in favour of traditional Malta and traditional values.

In this tale, the author changes publisher but not much more.

We hear the stories of two very similar families – Frans and Lukrezja with their son Michael and his wife Jenny and Martin and Marisa with their children Thomas and George, two very dissimilar brothers.

At the beginning of the book, Michael and Jenny are worried because Jenny has not become pregnant. They decide to go to Lourdes to pray for a particular favour.

On the other side, Martin and Marisa face a different problem: Thomas is an obedient son and is taking over his father’s animal food business while his brother George is a scatter-brain, out to enjoy himself. George accepts to host a friend of his, who lives in London, Christopher and his girlfriend Elsie but the inevitable happens when George goes to work and leaves Elsie very near to Tomas.

There are moments of accidents and incidents along the way, leading to a death or two. But the book ambles its way to a happy ending to all involved.

The story line is simple and flowing, written in simple Maltese and based in a very recognisable Maltese landscape.

Certain mistakes should have been corrected, however, such as a misspelled Bateaux Mouches and some slight mistakes, that are thankfully rare.