Beasts and Titanium Men: the year ahead for Merlin

2014 was a very important year for Merlin Publishers, as we consolidated our growth in two critical areas for us: enriching the corpus of children’s literature by translating quality titles into Maltese, and expanding our adult list while retaining its distinctiveness and quirkiness.

Merlin publishes few – but very carefully chosen – adult titles each year, and 2014 had three highly varied titles for us. First off in January, Clare Azzopardi’s much-awaited return to adult fiction – eight full years after her Il-Linja l-Ħadra – was launched: Kulħadd ħalla isem warajh, a title that went on to critical and reader acclaim and is by all accounts Azzopardi’s strongest offering to date.

A month later, Merlin published Teodor Reljic’s debut novel, Two, which seems to be finally putting a nail into the coffin of the “English novels published locally do not sell”, as it was second only to Azzopardi’s comeback in sales. For Merlin, this was also quite a departure from its usual genres, and its success has further encouraged us to seek more such manuscripts.

Later in the year, the winner of Merlin’s #abbozz literary competition – Mark Vella’s debut novel X’Seta’ Ġralu lil Kevin Cacciattolo? – was published. Vella’s manuscript is a beautifully written, highly emotional take on the world of a boy living in eighties Malta as he grapples with life. The mystery disappearance of the title, is tackled from a different angle in the second half of the novel as a wannabe-investigative journalist toys with whether to dig a bit deeper into this cold case.

Just recently, Merlin published possibly its most unusual title to date: Stephan D. Mifsud’s The Maltese Bestiary, which has been an unexpected hit over Christmas. A hardback compendium of the supernatural lurking around the Maltese islands, it provides a hitherto-uncollected Maltese mythology complete with illustrations of its beasts, entities, flora and fauna.

And of course, 2014 was the year that a Merlin publication, Dak li l-lejl iħallik tgħid by Pierre J. Mejlak, deservedly won the EU Prize for Literature – a coveted EU-wide prize that dramatically increases the visibility of the winning titles on a European level.

On the children’s literature front, 2014 saw Merlin publishing titles for a wide range of ages, both original novels and literature in translation. Apart from the well-loved stories and adventures, Merlin also experimented with a more “daring” picture book, Il-fabbrika tal-kliem, translated by Clare Azzopardi, that reads both to young children and also to adults as a timeless love story.

Rita Saliba’s adventure stories for children, and Simon Bartolo’s young adult novel adaptation Kważi kważi lil Tamara nżommuha, rounded up a strong year for translations.

Among Merlin’s traditional strengths are educational titles, and 2014 saw the launching of Merlin’s brand-new Maltese literacy scheme for primary, Tikka Malti. And towards the end of the year, Merlin published Trevor Żahra’s long-awaited Stampakelma, a massive endeavour of a picture dictionary that entailed more than two years of research and work. Over a thousand words, and illustrations, make this the most detailed, comprehensive and Maltese culture-grounded picture dictionary ever.

Of course, for the past months we’ve been working full-on on our 2015 publishing list, which promises to be one of our strongest in years. We will shortly be publishing Mejlak’s EU Literature Prize-winning book in English translation, following an extensive, rigorous translation and editing process.

Among the returns of 2015, Mark Camilleri’s Inspector Gallo will return with his third investigation. Prize-winning author John A. Bonello will debut in a category that’s new to him – children’s literature – with a very different sort of detective: Irvin Vella, l-investigatur virtwali, illustrated by Lisa Falzon.

We’re very excited to be publishing not one but two English-language novels in 2015: Lizzie Eldridge’s Vandalism, as well as a lovely atmospheric novel set in and around the Lazzaretto back in the 1950s, written by Jenny Wilson. Both these manuscripts are currently in their final stages of editing.

Merlin is also honoured to be publishing the highly-anticipated biography of young Jacob Cachia, also known as The Titanium Man after his battle with a horrific illness, as written by his indomitable mum Sarah together with Kristina Chetcuti.

And, towards the end of the year, we have in store a unique surprise – a beautiful book on Maltese life in the Holy Land. But more on this later…

Children’s literature adaptations into Maltese will see the welcome return of Loranne Vella and Pierre J. Mejlak in two very special picture storybooks. Plus, needless to say, many other new titles by a mix of established a new authors.

Chris Gruppetta is Director of Publishing at Merlin Publishers