Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The Island Where Time Stood Still.

This is where the first novel from Gozitan writer and novelist Sabine Cassar-Alpert is set. I had the pleasure of reading this entertaining and beautifully constructed novel whilst on holiday in the Maltese island of Gozo a few weeks ago, it also happens to be where story is set.
Entitled "Angelina's Ghost" the story is set around Laura a German girl from Berlin, and follows her life.

After traveling to Gozo for a holiday with a friend Laura meets the man of her dreams, moves to live on Gozo against the wishes of her mother. Later in the story Laura finds that she takes the same line of protest with her son, as her mother did with her many years before. She posses the question "am I turning into my mother."

Do not be fooled into thinking that this is one of those predictable coffee-table style love story's where everyone lives happily ever after. Laura finds that moving from the big city life in Germany to the community of a very small island is not without it's problems and takes a considerable amount of adjustment.

After some considerable time in a dead end job in the local tourist industry she decides to give up her job and attempt to become a self employed self driven writer and journalist.
For any one that is familiar with the island of Gozo all of the locations in the story do actually exist here.

I won't detail to much of the plot here in case you should choose to read Angelinas Ghost. We have young love, marriage, life, birth, parental conflict, death, heartache, and a ghost for good measure.
I found this a completely satisfying story, you should take this book to the beach, but make sure you read it in the shade.

I believe that Sabine is in the process of writing her next book, following the success of Angelin'a Ghost. I know that I for one will be reading it.

If you should wish to purchase Angelinas Ghost click here

"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think".
Edwin Schlossberg

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this Steve! I honestly didn't expect you to like it that much!! :-)