Trezza Azzopardi

This is not an uplifting read and I would have to wonder if it is based on the authors own life. It has a very authentic ring as it describes the first 5 years in the life of Dolores Gauci, the youngest child of a Welsh mother and Maltese father. This reflects Azzopardi's own ancestry. Father, Frankie, is a gambler and prone to violence, her mother Mary struggles to keep the family of 6 daughters fed and the rent paid, resorting to other means to balance the books.
The story is narrated in the voice of Dolores (Dol), as she has returned home for her mother's funeral. The family characters and those of their friends and acquaintances are very well-drawn, as is the underworld of Cardiff in the 1960's.
This debut novel was shortlisted for the ManBooker in 2000. It is a book that left me feeling very reflective.… (mais)

I first read this book many years ago, and recall that both my mother and I thought it was the best book we'd read in a long time. Upon re-reading it, I still enjoyed it but it didn't "wow" me this time.

This is the story of five sisters, daughters of a Maltese father (Frankie) and a Welsh mother (Mary) growing up in Cardiff. The story is narrated by the youngest daughter, Dol. This means we are hearing the story as remembered by a very young child who, as an adult, is reconnecting with her sisters at their mother's funeral. It is a book full of violence and poverty and sadness, but it is compelling as we watch the sisters each coping (or not) in her own way.… (mais)

Trezza Azzopardi (b.1961) emerged into the literary landscape with a rare accomplishment: The Hiding Place was her debut novel and it was shortlisted for the 2000 Booker Prize. Debut novels are quite commonly shortlisted for major prizes here in Australia, but it doesn't often happen with the Booker. The Hiding Place also joined some very distinguished company when it won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 2001 and was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Since then Azzopardi has published four more novels: Remember Me, (2003); Winterton Blue, (2007) and The Song House, (2010) and The Tip of My Tongue (2013).

Karen at Booker Talk lists The Hiding Place among Welsh authors: 80 Books to inspire you and from there she links to this review which included Azzopardi's novel in Wales Arts Review’s ‘Greatest Welsh Novel’ series. I did not know any of this when I bought the book back in 2005 from the Readings Bargain Table. I noticed the Booker shortlisting on its cover, and brought it home.

The Hiding Place defies any romanticised How Green was My Valley expectations you might have of Welsh writing. Azzopardi was born in Cardiff to a Maltese father and a Welsh mother, and her novel is set in the underbelly of Cardiff — its docklands, where sailors came from all over the world and made use of the gambling dens, the clubs and the good-time girls. Sometimes these men fell for a local lass and stayed. Salvatore marries Carlotta and stays clear of the vice but makes the mistake of befriending and trusting Frankie...

Azzopardi doesn't romanticise the Maltese community of the postwar era in this story of a dysfunctional family. Frankie Gauci, aided and abetted by a bunch of gangsters and gamblers, is a monster who destroys his family: his wife Mary, and his six girls, Celesta, Marina, Rose, Fran, Luca and Dolores, the youngest. Told through the eyes of Dolores, the story traverses the forties through to the sixties, beginning with her birth on the day when her father has gambled away his entire income — his half-share in Salvatore's café, along with their home above it, and all the money they have. His greatest regret, however, seems to be that he's also lost his father's ruby ring...

Dolores is brought home to sleep shut into a chest.

My mother told me how she wrapped me in a shawl at night and hid me from my father.

He would have smothered you, she said, without malice but with a strange sense of pride, as if I were a Rescue kitten she had taken in. (p.5)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/03/22/the-hiding-place-by-trezza-azzopardi/… (mais)