A Death in Malta
An assassination and a family’s quest for justice
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
'A murdered mother's fight for truth and justice lives on through the words of her youngest son' Angelina Jolie
'A work of rare vividness and authority, devastatingly told' Financial Times
When Paul Caruana Galizia was at work in London, his eldest brother called to say their mother Daphne had just been assassinated. That day, he returned to their native Malta and, with his two brothers and their father, began a quest to discover who was responsible for Daphne's murder and who stood to profit from ending the life of a journalist whose courage and determination threatened the powerful with the truth. Two years later, they did.
A Death in Malta is more than an investigation into the life and assassination of Daphne by her son Paul. It's an examination of the globalisation of corruption and what it has done to a modern European country; it's about that country's escape from colonialism to another kind of arrogant power; it's a personal history of writing when the stakes are high and the intimidation is violent. Above all, it's a universal homage to mothers and their sons.
'A superbly honest and very painful account . . . A book that is unforgettable, beautifully written and deeply honest' John Simpson, Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Galizia (The Economy of Modern Malta) combines the personal and the political in this blistering account of his mother's crusade against government corruption, her subsequent murder, and his family's efforts to find justice. Daphne Caruana Galizia (1964–2017) became Malta's first female newspaper columnist in the 1990s and wrote extensively on illegal activity by government officials. Daphne's rigorous investigations—which stood in contrast to Malta's otherwise passive media ecosystem—led Politico to dub her a "a one-woman WikiLeaks" and provoked regular threats to her and her family's lives, including multiple attempts to set their home on fire. On October 16, 2017, a bomb detonated in the car Daphne was driving, killing her instantly. The assassination caused an international uproar; while those involved in planting and detonating the device were apprehended, questions about who hired them remain. Galizia recounts his mother's extraordinary career without tipping into hagiography, and catalogs the infuriating obstacles he and his family have faced as they've sought answers about her death. The result is an instant classic of political true crime that will make readers' blood boil.
