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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2021 6 BOOKS Clare Vassallo translates Trevor Żahra's novel 'Vespers' WHAT do you do when you're stuck in traffic? Fiddle with the car radio? Listen to the banter of DJs, or … study the driver of the car next to you until you obsess with her and end up following her around in the streets? This is exactly what happens in a short story in Vespri - Tre- vor Żahra's award-winning short story collection - when traffic goes to the narrator's head, he starts chasing around a Nissan Terrano with the number plate JES-010, driven by a platinum blonde girl. Żahra's short stories paint out a delightful conglomeration of characters and situations from everyday life, touching upon different themes such as sex, music and death. Each charac- ter comes to life when an odd curiosity, a harmless obser- vation or a weak trait is spun into a tale. And which is why in Vespri we explore a blind marriage, a letter posted to a tombstone, and playing on a piano which has no sound. The collection is a play on the sens- es: you can smell the whiff of suntan lotion in Ambra Solare; listen to the musical sound of Spanish in Mħabba fi Żmien il-Kolera; the sense of touch in Ħamsin Sfumatura; the emptiness in Pitiross; and the visual imagery in Inviżibbli and Xagħar Aħmar. Vespri was such a joy to read and such a critical and popular success that it earned the au- thor his umpteenth National Book Award. Now, a few years later, it has been translated into English and is available as Ves- pers to make Żahra's writing accessible to English-language readers. Clare Vassallo's beau- tiful translation is sensitive to the original, preserving the flow, the music and the magic of Żahra's inimitable writing. Vassallo skilfully captured Żahra's tongue-in-cheek play with words, and the almost breathtaking pace of his writ- ing, that make of this book an- other remarkable reading ex- perience. Now anyone who reads in English – whether because they don't read Maltese or sim- ply because they prefer to read in English – can enjoy some of Malta's best literary talent. Vespers, the English transla- tion, is available from all book- shops or online directly from www.merlinpublishers.com Trevor Zahra (left) and Clare Vassallo (right) Book review Gisku: Ħbieb Ġodda Joseph Feriggi Horizons, 2020 THE days on Pawlu's farm keep going on. As a result of the farmer's diligence and that of his son, Ġużeppi, the circle of friends of Ġis- ku, who is now a grown up donkey, keeps growing. He was feeling happy on the farm, but as time went by he started realizing that it is not always easy to make friends with others. Why did Reggie, Mat- tew's new dog, had three legs and not four? Will it be possible for Ġisku to defy the other farm animals' opinions and start a new friendship with him? The time for Imnarja's race has arrived. Will he be able to win this year's donkeys' race? He prepared himself very well for it, but Brillu will be com- peting also. And who was that lovely fe- male donkey, he spotted in Gozo? It was quite impossible to forget what he felt the instance he saw her. Ġisku accepted all that life could offer. He learnt some- thing from all his experiences. He smiled when it was possible. And he didn't let bad moments push him down, but he was always optimistic. He realised that life would be much nicer if he lives for the moment.