Alfred Sant’s  latest collection of short stories, 'Western', will be launched during a literary soiree entitled ‘The Maltese Cowboy’ during which excerpts from the main story Western and other novels included in this anthology will be dramatised.  

Sant presents “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, whose husband was presumed dead in the US-Mexican War of 1846-48. This is not the only novel which will be brought to life, other novels which show Sant at his best will be dramatised during this literary evening. 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. How do we shape up compared to how we see ourselves and how others see us? In this sense, the Maltese cowboy with his failures and his highs, becomes a symbol of all Maltese endeavours, past, present and maybe future.

Sant varies his style, stretches imaginary possibilities. Sant seeks points of contact between the literature of “the working people” and more exclusive works aimed at the more demanding reader. This anthology shows Sant 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 directed by Sean Buhagiar. The Maltese Cowboy will be held on Friday 4 November at 7pm at FORTRESS BUILDERS, Valletta. The author will attend and sign copies of the new publication. WESTERN, Bejn Rakkonti, Bejn Divertimenti is another publication by SKS Publishers.Entrance is free. There will be a reception after the literary evening.