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Happy Weekend
A new hero glares at us from behind the rough subculture that Immanuel Mifsud uses to effect. This new hero is not the modern anti-hero, nor the distracted one of post-modernism. Whereas these hero types could still think before acting, Mifsud's characters have no agenda, drift from day to day, and have only one choice: to act or not to act. They are characters who have lost all the traditional or moral values, including the urge to protest against injustice, a reaction that they deem as futile.
- GenresThe World
132 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2006
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About the author
Immanuel Mifsud
44 books57 followersImmanuel Mifsud was born in Malta in 1967, the youngest in a working class family of eight children.
He started writing poetry at age 16, when he co-founded the literary group Versarti. At that same age he began to work in experimental theatre groups, directing his own plays and later he directed plays by Chekhov, Dario Fo, Max Frisch, Federico Garcia Lorca, David Mamet, Harold Pinter and Alfred Buttigieg.
Immanuel Mifsud writes poetry and prose, and some of his works have been translated into various languages and published in various European countries and USA.
His 2002 short story collection L-Istejjer Strambi ta' Sara Sue Sammut (Sara Sue Sammut's Strange Stories) won the Malta National Literary Award. The same book was later nominated for the Premio Strega Europa. Mifsud's next collection of stories, Kimika (Chemistry) stirred a controversy for what was deemed as "pornographic literature". The Left leaning press lambasted the book for its "filth", while the leading Right leaning English newspaper never published reviews on this book. In 2008 Klabb Kotba Maltin published his most recent prose work, another short story collection, Stejjer li ma Kellhomx Jinkitbu (Stories Which Shouldn't Have Been Written).
Immanuel Mifsud writes also for children; his latest publication Orqod, Qalbi, Orqod (Sleep My Love, Sleep) being a collection of lullabies.
He has participated in a number of prestigious literature festivals, such as the Festival de Poesia de la Mediterrania (Palma de Mallorca), Dnevi Poezija in Vina (Medana, Slovenia), Terceti Trnovski (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Dni Poezie a Vina (Valtice, Czech Republic), and others. Some of his poems were published in eminent publications such as New European Poets (Graywolf Press), The Echoing Years (Waterford Institute of Technology), and In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself (MWE), among others.
In 2011 Edizzjonijiet Emmadelezio published Bateau Noir, a collection of poems in a bilingual edition, with translations from Maltese into French by Nadia Mifsud and Catherine Camilleri.
On 12 October 2011 it was announced that Immanuel Mifsud won the European Prize for Literature, 2011, with his book Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben).
He started writing poetry at age 16, when he co-founded the literary group Versarti. At that same age he began to work in experimental theatre groups, directing his own plays and later he directed plays by Chekhov, Dario Fo, Max Frisch, Federico Garcia Lorca, David Mamet, Harold Pinter and Alfred Buttigieg.
Immanuel Mifsud writes poetry and prose, and some of his works have been translated into various languages and published in various European countries and USA.
His 2002 short story collection L-Istejjer Strambi ta' Sara Sue Sammut (Sara Sue Sammut's Strange Stories) won the Malta National Literary Award. The same book was later nominated for the Premio Strega Europa. Mifsud's next collection of stories, Kimika (Chemistry) stirred a controversy for what was deemed as "pornographic literature". The Left leaning press lambasted the book for its "filth", while the leading Right leaning English newspaper never published reviews on this book. In 2008 Klabb Kotba Maltin published his most recent prose work, another short story collection, Stejjer li ma Kellhomx Jinkitbu (Stories Which Shouldn't Have Been Written).
Immanuel Mifsud writes also for children; his latest publication Orqod, Qalbi, Orqod (Sleep My Love, Sleep) being a collection of lullabies.
He has participated in a number of prestigious literature festivals, such as the Festival de Poesia de la Mediterrania (Palma de Mallorca), Dnevi Poezija in Vina (Medana, Slovenia), Terceti Trnovski (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Dni Poezie a Vina (Valtice, Czech Republic), and others. Some of his poems were published in eminent publications such as New European Poets (Graywolf Press), The Echoing Years (Waterford Institute of Technology), and In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself (MWE), among others.
In 2011 Edizzjonijiet Emmadelezio published Bateau Noir, a collection of poems in a bilingual edition, with translations from Maltese into French by Nadia Mifsud and Catherine Camilleri.
On 12 October 2011 it was announced that Immanuel Mifsud won the European Prize for Literature, 2011, with his book Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 3, 2026
Lowkey kind of mid ngl
This is a collection of short stories about individual characters who tend to deviate from social norms and try to find their own way in the world, but do literally nothing. They have no particular agenda and simply have to decide whether “to act, or not to act.” Ultimately, it’s an exploration of the deep-rooted loneliness that characterizes the postmodern era through the mundanity of daily life. I feel like there are a few stories that were just so incredibly poignant and really strong character vignettes, but the others pale in comparison. It truly felt like I was dragging myself through the mundanity to get to these more exciting depictions of even more mundanity. Although likely purposeful, it’s not a device that really spoke to me 5/10
This is a collection of short stories about individual characters who tend to deviate from social norms and try to find their own way in the world, but do literally nothing. They have no particular agenda and simply have to decide whether “to act, or not to act.” Ultimately, it’s an exploration of the deep-rooted loneliness that characterizes the postmodern era through the mundanity of daily life. I feel like there are a few stories that were just so incredibly poignant and really strong character vignettes, but the others pale in comparison. It truly felt like I was dragging myself through the mundanity to get to these more exciting depictions of even more mundanity. Although likely purposeful, it’s not a device that really spoke to me 5/10
February 2, 2021
The stories were uneven and there were occasionally some editing / translation errors, but when it hit the mark it hit it squarely.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews