Book: Island Faces: Four Novellas from Malta

Publsiher: Allied Publications 2011

Extent: 238pp

Until his untimely death in November last year, Lino Spiteri was one of the Maltese great authors, with his written productions ranging from English-language comment articles every week on the Sunday Times to Maltese language books containing short stories.

This huge literary production, consequently, ranges from the political arena to that of the lives of the Maltese, from the actual to the fantastic. Or the almost fantastic for in many of his books Lino reflects his own life, his political activity, as well as his 'other' life as a resident of the Maltese countryside.

This book, published when Mr Spiteri was still alive, contains four novellas or short stories taken from his books and translated by Joseph Agius.

Now I have read most, but not all, of Mr Spiteri's Maltese language books but the absence of a short note saying from which books the novellas were taken renders it rather difficult to identify the originals.

The longest story in this book, Under a Dying Moon, is clearly identifiable. This is taken from Meta Jdellel il-Qamar, a terrible tale set in Marsaxlokk among a family of fishermen, a tale of love, hatred, death and hard work. Although the story is about males too, it is the women who get the limelight, from the redoubtable Tona, the widow owner of the boat to Rita, who, coming from a different environment, is an outsider, a weakling, at least as Tona sees her.

The first story, A Death out of Season, is rather baffling. A stunning girl meets a rather ill-at-ease man. The story is told in flashes from his side and from hers. The relationship, if that is the word, proceeds by fits and starts. There is something, inside the girl, that inhibits a close relationship. The fact that she is seeing a young man on the side hardly helps. By the time the end comes, for there is an end, the two (or three) have hardly learned anything and the girl has not moved one inch towards solving what's bugging her.

It would seem whoever chose the novellas for inclusion chose those with a terrible story in them. The next novella, Wild Clover, takes us to Gozo and introduces an old character, the old, wizened, match-maker who engineers a match which solves a number of problems. All her ingenuity though gets unraveled when an English couple take up residence next to their farmhouse.

I am happy that the last novella chosen, The Innocent, comes from Spiteri's Fejn Jixrob il-Qasab fis-Sajf, a book he clearly loved writing, based on his beloved Bahrija, where he had his other residence and where he could forget his cares of office and politics, engage in simple conversation with the farmer characters who lived around him.

The novella chosen tells of the young, naïve, uneducated, farmer who, on an impulse leaves his field and passes through Tas-Santi on his way to Gnejna where he is confronted by the naked bathers who congregate in the outer reaches of that bay.

Randu, the young man, is The Innocent, as the title has it. He shrinks back from the cavorting bathers of Gnejna but he is still attracted to what, in those days, was shown late at night on Italian television stations.

The novella ambles on, much like the farmers do, talking about pruning and planting and other rural matters until Gerit (later Margaret) enters the scene. The girl next door has studied and made it to university. Yet her roots are still in the fields.

They are childhood friends, but then they become strangers to each other. He broods and dreams of her, but she throws him out of her life.

In revenge, he becomes the hunter of Gnejna, especially that part reserved for naked swimmers. It does not matter who his body attracts (women, not men). He is punishing himself for what he does not know.

The final scene is ambiguous: he and Margaret meet again, make love, but he is no longer the 'last virgin on this honeyed isle' as she calls him. He has lost his innocence just when she wanted him to remain the innocent he once was.