Transita No 2 this week is Uphill all the Way by Sue Moorcroft I will admit to a bias in its favour before I even turned to the first page as I knew that part of it was set in Malta. Sue Moorcroft grew up in Malta and says that if she can't be there, then the next best thing is to put her characters there. I spent part of my childhood on this wonderful island, only returning for the first time last summer. Though I found parts of Malta a tad dilapidated now, the beaches and the sea were still stunningly beautiful and brought back many happy memories.
The book starts with a shocking tragedy which leads to the death of Judith's lover, Georgio. She feels responsible for this accident and is also blamed by Georgio's family who had never approved of her and their relationship as Georgio was married, though long separated from his wife. In Malta, a Catholic country, divorce was not allowed. Forced by circumstances to return home to England, Judith finds herself in the spare bedroom at her sister's house, with no home, no job and no future.
Her house has been let in her absence to Adam, who she used to have a crush on when she was at school. He is not very co-operative about letting her have her home back but it is clear from the start that there is a mutual attraction which eventually comes to fruition over a period of time when Judith works for him as a photographic assistant. In the meantime time Judith has had to deal with her irascible ex-husband who is jealous of his son Kieran's relationship with her and the fact that he turns to her when he and his girlfriend, Bethan, lose their baby, her sister who leaves her husband and takes refuge with Judith when she eventually moves back into her home, and the news that Georgio, who had been in a coma when she left Malta, has died. As the title of the books says it is Uphill all the Way.
Judith returns to Malta, this time with Adam, to return a family heirloom of Georgio's and also to face her demons and to realise that she was not to blame for the accident, and must learn to forgive herself and continue with her life. There was one passage in this part of the book that caught my eye immediately:
"Judith steered him onwards and upwards to one of her favourite spots, the heights of the Upper Baracca Gardens (these are in Valletta). There they stared out over the glinting blue splendour of Grand Harbour........Adam gazed silently over the depths of incredible blue to the church domes and bell towers..."
I stood in this exact spot last summer so knew exactly what Adam and Judith were seeing and here is my photo taken that day:
I enjoyed this book very much, it brought back happy memories of my childhood in Malta and my visit last year. I also liked Judith. She had to start all over again at the age of 51, the same age I had to do the same and, like her, I found it Uphill all the Way.
We both got there in the end. Hooray!
