'Fgat'

Author: Daniele Mencarelli

Translated into Maltese: David Aloisio

Publisher: Merlin Publishers / 2026

Pages: 176

What happens when love for your children, the very force that is meant to bond a family together, instead starts to feel like it's choking the life out of you? Fgat is the Maltese translation of Daniele Mencarelli's powerful novel Fame d'Aria, just released by Merlin Publishers. Taking its name from this very sensation - of feeling suffocated, gasping for breath - the novel offers a profoundly moving reflection on parental love pushed to its very limits.

Pietro is travelling through southern Italy with his son Jacopo, a young man with low-functioning autism, when their car breaks down. While it's being repaired, father and son are forced to spend a few days in the small village of Sant'Anna del Sannio, where they meet Agata, Gaia and Oliviero - three ordinary people whose quiet generosity helps Pietro push back against his despair and start to see his life in a different light. What begins as an unfortunate setback gradually becomes an opportunity for Pietro to rediscover trust in others and, perhaps, in himself.

In its original Italian edition, Fgat won the Premio Clara Sereni, and is regarded as one of Mencarelli's most compelling novels. With prose that is spare, precise and free of sentimentality, the author draws close to one of the most difficult of human experiences: that of a parent caring for a child with a severe disability while battling, day after day, exhaustion, isolation and fear for their child's future. Rather than offering easy answers, Mencarelli gives voice to a father wrestling with emotions he often feels too ashamed to admit, creating a narrative that exposes both the fragility and the resilience of the human spirit, leaving the reader equally breathless.

At the same time, the novel sheds light on a reality rarely given space in literature: the lives of autistic people's families as their children grow older. While attention tends to focus on childhood, Fgat explores the challenges of adolescence and adulthood, when the burden on parents grows heavier in every sense, and the question of what will happen to their children once they themselves are no longer there becomes ever more pressing. In this way, the novel transcends its personal story to become a broader reflection on the enormous emotional weight carried by these families, and on the need for empathy and collective responsibility.

Born in Rome in 1974, Daniele Mencarelli is one of the most celebrated authors in contemporary Italian literature. His autobiographical trilogy has earned him several prestigious awards, including the Premio Strega Giovani and the European Union Prize for Literature. His novel Tutto chiede salvezza was adapted into the Netflix series of the same name.

The novel was translated into Maltese by David Aloisio, writer, translator and head of the Maltese Department at Junior College. Himself a multiple winner of the National Book Prize, Aloisio says it was Mencarelli's distinctive style that struck him most: "He uses simplicity to convey emotions of extraordinary power. This is a novel that descends into the deepest depths of suffering, yet ultimately lifts the reader back up towards hope. As a translator, but also as a parent, Pietro's emotional journey left a profound impact on me."

The cover, designed by artist Pierre Portelli, complements the tone of the novel with a visual interpretation that reflects both the vulnerability and the quiet strength at the heart of the story.

The translation of Fgat was made possible with the support of the Malta Book Fund 2024, which enabled the publishers to bring this important work of contemporary Italian literature to Maltese readers. At the same time, Maltese language literature continues to be enriched by a work that encourages awareness and discussion around deeply human themes.

Fgat is available from bookshops across Malta and Gozo, as well as online from the publisher's website www.merlinpublishers.com