Emma qatlet żewġt irġiel. Dennis Castillo u Tommy Grech. It-tnejn li huma ħadu b’idejn il-Kurunell Muammar Gaddafi meta ġie Malta bejn il-21 u l-24 ta’ Mejju tal-1976. Tommy kien jaħdem il-Palazz ta’ Sant’Anton fejn il-Kurunell kiel is-Sibt u l-Ħadd filgħaxija. Kellu r-ritratt ma’ Gaddafi mdendel fl-intrata tad-dar. Dennis kien spettur u kellu ritratt ma’ Gaddafi fuq l-iskrivanija fl-uffiċċju tiegħu. Qatt ma ddispjaċieha ta’ dak li għamlet. Sakemm darba waħda, tfaċċajt jien quddiem il-bieb tad-dar tagħha. Jien Amanda, it-tifla ta’ Emma.
Kieku kellek titlef lil ommok, u meta terġa’ ssibha snin twal wara, issir taf li qatlet, x’tagħmel?
Clare Azzopardi tgħix ġo dar antika 400 sena. Tqatta’ ħafna ħin taqra u tikteb l-istejjer kemm għat-tfal kif ukoll għall-kbar, sakemm ma tkunx qed tgħallem. Hija l-Kap tad-Dipartiment tal-Malti fil-Junior College. Rebħet ħafna premjijiet bil-kotba tagħha u ħafna mix-xogħol tagħha ġie maqlub f’lingwi oħra. clareazzopardi.comAra aktar
“The great strength of the novel is surely in the liveliness of the many dialogues through which Azzopardi reveals again and again the personality, strengths and weaknesses of her characters.”
— Reċensjoni ta’ Castillo minn Paul Xuereb, fis-Sunday Times of Malta: Of detectives and maternal love
“There is a deeper, more intimate idea underlying this novel and that is the idea of the woman who realises, as soon as she gives birth to her child, that she doesn’t want to be a mother, that she doesn’t have the mother gene.
To complicate matters, life intervenes and situations evolve that give her the perfect opportunity to run away from her life and leave her daughter with the father. So yes, this is a novel about the relationship, or non-relationship, between mother and daughter – a daughter who eventually becomes a mother in her own right and starts to build a relationship with her own daughter.” — Clare Azzopardi, intervistata minn Ramona Depares għas-Sunday Times of Malta
Aqra l-intervista sħiħa hawn: Fact interplaying with fiction