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
Wara 25 sena tgħallem il-letteratura Maltija, Clare Azzopardi ddeċidiet li titlaq kollox u tibda kapitlu ġdid. Ma tafx kemm se jkun twil dal-kapitlu, u lanqas jimpurtaha wisq dment li qed tiktbu hi. L-importanti li magħha hemm Albert, karattru importanti ħafna fl-istorja ta’ ħajjitha; l-importanti li hemm il-kotba tal-kittieba li tħobb (sintendi ma tistax iġġorrhom kollha, imma ġa ġarret ħafna); l-importanti li hemm is-siġar ħodor u kbar qishom ġganti; ir-russetti u ċ-ċikonji bla ebda biża’ li jaqilgħu tir; l-importanti li hemm is-skiet u ftit li xejn krejnijiet.
clareazzopardi.comritratt meħud minn Giola CassarAra aktar
“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 MaltaAqra l-intervista sħiħa hawn: Fact interplaying with fiction