'Il-Baruni tal-Imdina'
Author: Joseph Serracino
Publisher: Wise Owl Publications / 2018
Pages: 147
Many many years ago, in my time at Il-Hajja I was many times approached by a young and shy man to publish yet another instalment of his long and detailed history of the Regatta.
Then, as things many times happen, I moved on and contact with him was lost.
He, however, seems to have found he was good at writing in Maltese and has been writing novel after novel, mostly with a Maltese background.
The novel being reviewed today is one of this series. I note that it is not printed on cartridge paper as other books normally are but on a different type of paper with equal results.
The story centres around a nobleman who lives together with his elderly wife and a rather full retinue in an Mdina palazzo with, a rarity this, a rather big garden.
The nobleman and his wife have only one child, a girl, which they bring up to the best of their ability.
The action takes place in the first years of the 20th century when slowly the ideas of modern times start to penetrate even the bastions of Mdina.
The baron, thanks to his religious principles, is charitable with those who have been ill-treated by life.
However, this act of generosity ultimately brings about immense suffering and anguish for him and his wife.
At the same time, what unfolds is the result of the love that sprouts between two young people, despite their differing social classes.
All this is told at a sedate step of an Mdina, which as often in Maltese literature serves as a unique backdrop to the story itself.