[LISTEN] Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka by Juann Mamo

Mark Vella reads an excerpt from Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka by Juann Mamo, originally published in parts between 1930 and 1931, and republished by SKS.

Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka is unanimously considered to be a cult novel. The book focuses on social and political life in early 20th-century Malta. In the author’s own words at the time, Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka is meant to be a satirical, descriptive and semi-political novel ‘of our own times’. The book follows the many mishaps and tells the story of a group of Maltese emigrants in New York, with political overtones relating to the miserable state of backwardness the rulers of Malta had left their people in. The novel, compared to Cervantes’ Don Quixote, is comic as much as it is tragic, culminating in the tragic death of these migrants when back in Malta.

About the author

Juann Mamo, better known as the idiosyncratic author of Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka, is probably one of the few Maltese writers who has continuously fascinated generations of readers. He was born in 1886, and spent time in jail from 1906 to 1912. Out of prison, he published his first writing in ‘Il-Bandiera Maltija’. He emigrated to Egypt from 1914 to 1921, where he communicated with Manwel Dimech, his intellectual leader. In 1941 he was found dead in Wied Babu, limits of Żurrieq, after suffering from rib fractures for reasons still unknown. He’s the author of Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerka (1930-31), Ġabra ta’ Sigrieti (1934) and Obstetricia Illustrata - Tagħrif fuq it-Twelid bil-Qabla u t-Tabib (1939), and the collection of short stories Ġrajja Maltija – Ġabra ta' Novelli (Klabb Kotba Maltin, 2010).

About the reader

Mark Vella edited Ġrajja Maltija (Klabb Kotba Maltin 2010), the hitherto unpublished short stories by Juann Mamo.