The Maltese Reader

09/04/2024

There is something irresistible about a novel that traces in its pages its own genesis. When it does so subtly and elegantly without overly contorting itself into an ouroboros, with humour thrown i…

16/11/2023

What's on your mind, Maltese Reader?

Well, not sure, but this is worth a read.

the honest critic of the Maltese literary scene

11/07/2023

Loranne Vella

An intriguing custom common in Japan centuries ago went as follows: an artist, successful or not, would change his name every few years, in order to be reborn with a new identity, a clean slate, a …

04/04/2023

This year's adult fiction shortlist for the national book awards may turn out to be the strongest in recent memory. Good news.

13/03/2023

Ramona Depares

Wondering what next to review (my TBR pile has long metastasized into a permanent furniture fixture in a corner of my bedroom, so technically I should not be short of ideas), I came across an episo…

06/03/2023

It is the early 1930s and Fascism holds sway in neighbouring Italy. Malta is not immune to this, and while the islands are firmly a British possession, there is unease. Like some version of Casabla…

22/02/2023

Aleks Farrugia

Aleks Farrugia has been busy since The Maltese Reader last spent some time with his work, and it was not a happy occasion. He has since released to the reading public no less than two novels, a col…

03/02/2023

The decadent aesthetic (originating in the late 19th century) and Maltese literature do not make for the best of bedfellows. Examples in our canon are so few and far between we might as well say th…

09/01/2023

Immanuel Mifsud

A killer, a child, a rebellious daughter and her racist parents, a stripper. I am safely assuming that Immanuel Mifsud is none of these. Which begs the question. How does Mifsud aim to get into the…

06/01/2023

Lara Calleja

In the previous Maltese Reader review, reference was made to Immanuel Mifsud’s collection of short stories, L-Aqwa Zmien, as being the book that ushered in the L-Aqwa Zmien subgenre of sorts …

03/01/2023

Kotba Calleja

Summer has frequently taken on a quasi mythic status in popular culture. Italian pop songs made of it a trope denoting loss and a melancholy sense of youth literally slipping through one’s fi…