When we speak of literature, novels are by far the most widely sought after and read genres both locally and abroad. We all know how stories have been known to grip children and grown-ups alike since time immemorial. That is one reason why history started to be written: to keep for posterity the stories of bravery and endurance that soldiers brought back from their fighting endeavours.

I will not be off mark if I say that by now, poet and writer Alfred Massa has made a name for himself in this genre of writing. Every novel he published was widely praised, thus proving a success. I have had the pleasure of reviewing another book of his Ir-raġel li ġie mal-lejl, another gripping story that transports the reader to a completely different world from the monotony of the everyday struggles that we undergo.

Why has the author chosen to write about the war theme when it has been chronicled many times before, you may wonder? Maybe in a symbolic way the author wished to pay homage to the displaced Jews who suffered tremendously through no fault of theirs. Or else lest we forget the atrocities the Nazi are said to have committed. Or it could be for a personal reason Massa chooses not to disclose to the reader. Whatever the reason, he manages to revive the uprooting, the unnatural situations, cruelty and hardship wars bring about very realistically.

War is never merciful and so, as the author delves into the lives of these five fugitive families, we are taken on a journey back to the years of the 1940s in war-torn Poland when many Polish Jews were persecuted, arrested and sent in thousands to the concentration camps. As we leaf over the pages, we get to know about the casualties of war, the atrocities, restrictions, hunger, fears, sadness, the human suffering, the dodgy escapades and deaths the common citizens had to endure.

The story is about a Rabbi, Jacob, who turns himself into a leader and his wife Rut who, together with four other families, tries to escape war by hiding in a nearby forest where they built camps and settled down into a temporary antisocial life of anxiety and food shortages, albeit of immediate comparative safety from the enemy. The story, however, is tinged with moments of sadness, joy and love since where there is life there is love and hope but, also, treason and death. The author shows he has done a lot of research since, as we dig into the pages we meet vivid and detailed descriptions of the Jewish culture and traditions. Such examples occur when celebrations of Christmas, Easter, engagements, weddings, baptisms and burials happen at the heart of this community. As in his previous novels, when the reader thinks he knows how the story ends, he is surprised by the last few sentences which present different possibilities and keep the reader guessing.

I feel we can all relate to the story in this novel as it makes us realize that everyone feels the need for the right to peaceful living, the need to cling to that which distinguishes it from any other race, that which helps us to survive as best we can notwhithstanding the tough circumstances we find ourselves in. Or have we gone beyond?