Friggieri book receives good review in TLS

Joe Friggieri's collection of short stories, Tales For Our Times, translated into English by Paul Xuereb and published by Progress Press, has been favourably reviewed in TLS, the literary review enjoying the widest circulation among UK readers and readers worldwide.

In a full-page article in the review's October 22 edition, David E. Cooper gives an overview of the history of Maltese literature from its origins down to the present.

Describing Malta as "the beneficiary of several cultural and linguistic traditions", Mr Cooper mentions the influence of Arab storytelling on Maltese tales, as well as the more recent debt to Italian literature and the impact of English tendencies on local writers.

Prof. Friggieri's stories are described as "crammed with fine dreams" and praised for their "remarkable variety".

Mr Cooper writes: "In several tales identifiably set in Malta, readers will encounter the customs of the country, its landscape and, of course, the sea.

"Culturally," Mr Cooper concludes, "Malta may not yet be a 'free port', but Paul Xuereb's translation of this intriguing and evocative collection of stories will serve as a timely invitation, in the year of Malta's accession to the European Union, to a neglected post-colonial literature."

Tales For Our Times, together with the same author's collection of Maltese plays for children and young adults, It-Tulipan l-Iswed, also published by Progress Press, will be on sale at the Book Fair in Naxxar over the weekend.