The Jukebox Queen Of Malta - Rinaldi, Nicholas

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Captivating love story set amidst the ruins of the island of Malta in 1942. Besieged by the Nazis, without contact from his unit and bombed out of his lodgings, American soldier Rocco finds himself wandering the streets until he meets Melita, a beautiful, ethereal woman... "Rinaldi treads a path between the traditional warbuster and the subtler Captain Corelli... a resonant, thoughtful novel" The Times.

Résumé :
It is 1942 and the island of Malta is under siege by the dominant German air force. Out of the smoke and magnesium glare of bomb blast steps Rocco Raven native of Brooklyn New York apprentice radioman and expert secondhand car dealer. His only contact is an American secret serviceman Fingerley whose rank upgrades with their every meeting and whose purpose is known to no-one but himself. Far from finding a role for Rocco Fingerley leaves him to face the chaos alone. On only his second day there his billet on the top floor of a brothel is blown to pieces. Without contacts or belongings Rocco is left to wander the devastated streets of Valetta in a bewildered daze until he sees an apparition a beautiful ethereal woman. She is Melita the Jukebox Queen of Malta who spends her time delivering the jukeboxes wrought by her cousin from old automobile and gramophone parts to the bars and restaurants which must accommodate the beleagured civilian and military populations. It is the beginning of an extraordinary relationship that is at once passionate and guarded which flourishes as the island's fortunes decline. Under the threat of starvation and in a world populated by the eccentrics of war Rocco's seems to be the lone voice of sanity until he too is affected by the madness around him and succumbs to the voluntary thrill of danger... The Jukebox Queen of Malta is an extraordinary novel of passion and intrigue set in a world which seems perilously balanced between what is real and what is not. It is a magnificently evocative piece of storytelling where the bizarre and heady atmosphere of a society under siege masks the uneasy truce between the Allied occupiers and the Maltese natives and where the physical beauty is only tainted by the sense of mystery desecrated....

Sommaire:
Nicholas Rinaldi teaches at Fairfield University, in Connecticut, where he lives with his wife, Jackie. His work includes two novels, Bridge Fall Down and The Jukebox Queen of Malta, and three collections of poetry: The Resurrection of the Snails, The Luftwaffe in Chaos and We Have Lost Our Fathers....