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THIS WEEK BOOKS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 OCTOBER 2019 4 With a concluding story that folds in a fictionalised take on both the recent egg-pelting of a sex worker and the murder of Lassana Cisse Souleymane, Immanuel Mifsud's latest short story collection, L-Aqwa Żmien, seeks to skewer that same campaign slogan with a brutal set of timely, topical and searingly painful explorations of the ones our society has left behind. The award-winning author speaks to TEODOR RELJIC about what motivated this angry and sullen new volume Teodor Reljic 'We are not living in the As is evident in both its title and the content of the stories within, this collection appears to have been inspired by the toxic underbelly of contemporary Malta. Would you say this characterisation is correct, and did you write out these stories – partly, at least – as a way of spitting out some of the venom that the state of the country has punctured through to your soul? I wrote these stories in a very short time, something a writer should never do. They are, of course, one political statement, which is aimed at those politicians who insist on us believing that we are liv- ing in the best of times. Some people might be enjoying the best times of their lives, true, but others aren't. The Sys- tem – an entity which nobody can really identify with any certainty – is very unfair, not only because it favours some and not all (that in itself is an ancient story) but because it makes us believe, by very sub- tle and not so subtle means, that really everything is fine. Many of us are still chanting, "Best of Times! Best of Times! Best of Times!" to the beat played by that DJ on stage, but there are silent corners where people retire in pain because their story is not in sync with what is presented on stage. Think of those who are living on the streets; those who come up to you in Re- public Street asking for one euro; think of those who had a home and ended up living in a garage because they can no longer afford the rent of their old flat. Think of the trees: the many that got chopped. I ad- mit these stories jar; they are out of tune with the grand, euphoric, scenario we've come to accept as the real. It is a matter of choice, I think: some love playing catchy tunes, I prefer a more sul- len beat. I dislike, or rather, mistrust elation. Now, if you don't mind, I have to make a disclaimer, which has become important in 21st century Malta: this collection of sto- ries is actually a recollection, a revisiting of themes I had already written about in my first publication back in 1993. Then there is another dark side, darker still. The under- belly of our society, as you called it. And here, what in- trigues me most, is the violent element. Again, nothing new, but still out of tune with what the master of ceremonies is proposing to us. I am not totally sure why I wrote this collection. What counts, for me, is that I wrote these stories intent on pass- ing on the message: no, we are "What would motivate someone just to shoot, cold-bloodedly, another human being which happens to be black? I honestly don't get it" PHOTO BY VIRGINIA MONTEFORTE