Fir-Rutina tal-Kwarantina
by Alfred Massa is available from BDL. 

An author is at his best and shows it when his imagination is at its most fertile. And, complementing his imagination, every author invariably reflects himself, his feelings and his life experiences in whatever he writes, particularly where a novel is concerned. 

Alfred Massa, one of Malta’s most prolific writers,  has progressed enormously since he wrote and published his first novel Is-Salib tal-Ġiżirana, way back in the 1970s.

This bestselling novel was followed quite regularly by others, all of them showing progress in the way Massa dealt with every story he imagined, penned down and eventually published.

An excellent poet himself, and former president of the Għaqda Poeti Maltin, Massa always waxed poetical in his novels. He has always been a spectator of life, with all its good and bad traits, and always sought to  stress moral points whenever possible, to thus add more weight to his narrative. This put him into a literary style of his own, as far as the Maltese novel is concerned.

And once again we have in hand another beautiful novel of his, one in which his maturity in years and his own personal experiences of life, have lashed out with a bitter-sweet attack on the crude reality that the whole world (Malta included) is going through because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A keener observer than ever, with a very fertile imagination, more than ever conscious of the chaos which is gradually devastating the world and life itself, Massa has fashioned a story which initially proves to be a prelude to the present grim global situation.

A number of characters form the main theme of a typical Maltese family, the limelight falling on  Norma, a beautiful young woman who eventually suffers because of her kindness and her trust in men. Her brothers and friends complement her appearance on every corner of the stage, particularly her mother Karmena, whom she worships. 

Coronavirus has hit Malta, and the situation is one of fear, dread, stress and insecurity

Initially, the atmosphere smacks of one in the 1980s or 1990s; then, with a great artistic literary lash out, Massa presses the fast-forward button, and the horrid present situation strikes like a thunderbolt into the year 2020: coronavirus has hit Malta, and the situation is one of fear, dread, stress and insecurity. The characters chosen by Massa, besides the other troubles that life itself has always in store, must now contend with the additional crisis of a yet-unconquered and very dangerous viral disease! 

Massa here surpasses himself: the situation is painfully alive, crude, stressful, and the despair of the situation is as realistic as ever.

His descriptions of the progress of the disease and its effects on his characters are given in detail, making the story itself sound more factual and realistic than ever.

The main characters: Norma, her mother Karmena, her brothers Pawlu and Salvu, her lover Gabriel, her friends Romina and Elizabeth, together with the lesser characters, move on from the normal to the abnormal,  from the usual day-to-day routine right into the tragic scenario, facing fear, doubt, uncertainty, and a life robbed of its run-of-the mill normality. 

The cautious epilogue on the walk to the finale is shadowed by despair; but Massa, brilliantly resorts to one of the lesser characters, Mena, a middle-aged former maid of Romina’s family, to lower the curtain on this dramatic story. Mena symbolises hope, as she devoutly prays and fervently beseeches God to ultimately put an end to the coronavirus horror, that life will get back to normal. A vague hint of cynicism may be felt here; but hope will certainly prevail!