Father Gioele Galea's Tħabbat Xtaqtek is a diary/memoir recounting the author's authentic experience at the Saint Girolamo hermitage in the green heart of Perugia.

It is immediately more than that. The prose is more than diaristic, it is a subtle and elegant narrative depicting a persona in search of God, experiencing the despair of doubt.

The memoir features the panorama of valleys and crags, the many dialogues between the hermit and cynical visitors, the search for God. It is, ultimately, a writer's clever and philosophical attempt at dialogue with the divine.

This is a genre-bending, open-minded text that does not resort to the dogma of religion. It unspools the experience of a human being in a place where silence and discretion are the golden rule, explores conscientiously and gorgeously the themes of solitude, spirituality, and love.

Published late last year, Tħabbat Xtaqtek has already sold out in its first batch of printing, making it to the Maltese leading bookstore's top ten sellers. But it being such an original and well-written account of solitary life, Gioele Galea's work is much more than a local bestseller and merits recognition beyond our shores.