Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ 

by Ġorġ Mallia

Republished by Merlin (new edition 2023)

As a relative newcomer to Maltese literature, I am not the right person to detail a history of the fantasy genre in Malta. However, I can say that every few years, there comes a book which takes the genre a bit further.

Personally, I think Simon Bartolo and Lorrane Vella’s Il-Fiddien trilogy (2007-2009) is a landmark in Maltese fantasy. Later last year, I read David Aloisio’s Ġganti (2022) and that impressed me. Elsewhere there’s Simone Spiteri’s Il-Vinkulari series (2017-2019) and Roberta Bajada’s Arloġġ u Tila (2016) and Arlekkin Isfar (2019). There’s more but I will have stop here or this introductory paragraph will evolve into a roll call.

However, there are always roots and although Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ, published in 1987, is not the first work of fantasy, it is considered one of the pioneering works. It is also one of cartoonist/author Ġorġ Mallia’s earlier books. The novel has been out of print for a while and Merlin brought it back in print. There’s an added bonus as there are new illustrations, to complement the old ones, and the text has been revised. In short, this is a labour of love and it clearly shows.

Abadnari, one of the characters in the book.

The book itself has a strange structure; the first half is a sort of 1001 Arabian Nights set-up; an old man (the Scheherazade-like character) is telling a group of gypsy children stories about the strange happenings in the city of Terani. These segments start with a brief introduction in italics and then the actual story begins. The more stories he tells, the more the children protest about sleeping.

The actual tales themselves are comfortably weird

The actual tales themselves are comfortably weird. There’s a man who has a perpetual raincloud over his head, A perpetual liar who meets his comeuppance, two stories about an adventurer called Rastin who has an encounter with a deer and a mythic beast. Elsewhere there’s witches, wizards and a rainbow thief.

The second part of the book goes more into the high fantasy route. The children are asleep and the old man recounts an episode when he was younger. Dragons, flying horses, wizards and sages all feature, plus some characters featured in the first section, which does give it some continuity. At first, I did find it jarring as it’s quite a shift in the book, but then it does make sense once the links appear. Like all good fantasy, there is world-building and it’s pretty good. 

Saħħar (wizard), another character in the book.

One thing I must note is that in Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ, the writing is lucid. It flows and has a certain simplicity but has a certain power to it. Here is writing that grabs you from the opening pages and invites you to be a part of the fantasy world created.

Due to the fantasy still in swaddling clothes, there’s a certain innocence to Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ. One can feel that here’s an author who is trying things out and being creative. There are quite a few surreal moments and they blend in with the narrative.

Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ’s reissue is quite timely as I feel the need to escape into literature is greater than ever but, on a more important point, it’s also a snapshot to a different type of Malta. One where children’s books were taking off and pioneers of children’s literature, Trevor Żahra, Charles Casha and Carmel G. Cauchi, were the new kids on the rock, so to speak. Luckily, other than being a portal to an older Malta, Ktieb ix-Xwejjaħ is a fun read and worth checking out.