I have been reviewing books by Carmel Scicluna for many years now, starting with Ghall-Imhabba ta' Lesbjana which until a few years ago was not even mentioned in his list of books.

There was also a time when he was forced to self-publish his books but now he has been integrated into mainstream literary circles; in fact this book won a recent edition of the Teenage Literature Award (organised by the National Book Council and Agenzija Zghazagh).

I do not know if this slim book is really wholesome fare for teenagers but this fact may even be a comment on our times.

Scicluna's previous books, not listed anywhere in this book, including the Barney l-Ispizjar books, reduce the world he describes to a CD, mainly D, environment set in or around Qormi, his native town. There is generally a dictatorial father around, a devout Mintoffjan, and an uneducated but tough mother.

This book takes the ingredients to a new low level: that of paedophilia.

There have been famous examples, such as Nabokov's Lolita.

But before people jump to conclusions and scream scandal they need to know more details.

Amira is an Algerian girl whose parents have separated: her mother is back in Algiers but she lives with her brutal animal of a father who is forever planning an al Qaeda attack with his fellow al Qaeda disciples.

Amira finds solace in a neighbour, a neighbour, who is obsessed with her, at first in a platonic way and then not in a platonic way.

In her secret sessions with 'Uncle Charlie', she tells him all that befalls her, her tyrannical and xenophobic school mistress, her school friend/boyfriend, and the sex games children play.

Midway through the book, a terrible accident takes place and further aggravates the gravity of an already serious situation. The end result is that Amira gets even closer to her protector, the narrator in part of the book.

The second part of the book introduces a more sombre theme: Amira's father is a key element in an al-Qaeda network operating from Malta and engaged in all kinds of terrorist activities.

Their next targets include 'Uncle Charlie', the paedophile former teacher, who also works as a translator of books that Muslims feel insult their religion. She spies on meetings held in her home at which all sorts of bloody plans are drawn up.

But soon her attention focuses on the small, real, terrible world that is her school where corruption reigns supreme. And as Amira exerts more and more power on 'Uncle Charlie', she draws him into all sorts of dangerous games aimed at exposing the corruption that is rife at her school.

I do not know about Nabokov, or any other books about paedophilia, but the very graphic descriptions included in this book are a far cry from Scicluna's most recent novels. The elements of shock, of surprise, seem to prevail over what a novel should do - tell a story which echoes our human condition.