A treasure trove of yellowed photographs
SEPJA<br>by Trevor Zahra<br>Merlin Library pp 320, ISBN 9789990912896
Provenz, Trevor Zahra's last collection of short stories for adults, was published no less than seven years ago - an eternity when one considers just how prolific he is as a children's author. For many, Provenz's main highlight was Xahxieh Vjola, a sprawling gem of a story in which an unnamed narrator recounts the history of his extended family before, during and after World War II. Sepja, released this month under Merlin Library's "adult" imprint (the one inaugurated sometime last year with the release of Clare Azzopardi's Il-Linja l-Hadra), sees the welcome return of the XahxiehVjola clan, in a collection of stories that is bound to amuse, entertain and hopefully pacify Trevor Zahra's sizeable (not to mention patient) fan base.
Trevor Zahra, who turns 60 later this year, agrees that the wait has been long, but as he goes to great lengths to explain, he hasn't exactly been dozing off. "During these seven years I've published and illustrated six books for children, three short novels for teenagers, six workbooks in collaboration with Clare Azzopardi, one poetry book for children, another book of satirical poems for adults, the award-winning book about the mischievous Red Rabbit (X'Tixtiequ Jaghmel il-Fenek?) and translated about 10 children's booklets. So I was keeping myself busy. Unfortunately, although it might seem like I produce a considerable amount of work, when it comes to adult short stories I'm a very slow writer."
Sepja brings together 10 new stories, many of them as good as anything Trevor Zahra has ever written. Wisely enough, XahxiehVjola and Fjuri ta' l-Arzell (another story featuring the same family, and which had also appeared in Provenz) have been included in this collection, too. Across 250-odd pages, a quick-witted narrator with a penchant for hyperbole looks back upon an idyllic childhood spent in the company of some of the most memorable characters yet to end up in a Trevor Zahra book. There's the grumpy, no-nonsense grandfather; the matriarchal, prudish grandmother; and then the most eccentric assortment of aunts and uncles this side of the Addams Family.
"Sepja is 90 per cent autobiographical," admits Trevor Zahra when I point out that the book's narrator - a teacher with a knack for storytelling - sounds suspiciously like himself. "My childhood and family history are the backdrop to these narratives The aunts and uncles in the book are modelled on the authentic ones... with just that little pinch of added spice. The story lines sprout from real life situations, even though some of them might seem bizarre and weird."
Seven years after its first appearance in print, Xahxieh Vjola remains a veritable tour de force, and arguably the finest piece of fiction ever written by Trevor Zahra. Presented as a series of 17 vignettes, each segment begins with a description of a sepia-tinted photograph and goes on to tell the story behind that particular picture. The tone here, as in the rest of the stories, is conversational and conspiratorial - on numerous occasions we are let in on a number of secrets relating to various members of the narrator's family: Auntie Bettie's homosexual affair with Frangiska, for example, or plump Zija Ofelja's marital infidelities.
One point worthy of mention is that many of the stories in this collection flirt with magical realism, a genre very much close to Trevor Zahra's heart.
"Whether I'm writing for children or for adults,' explains the author, "somehow I'm always writing about childhood. And although, as I said earlier, most of my stories are autobiographical, the magical lure of our first experiences is always present. Writers like Rushdie, Kundera, Marquez, Garner, Esquivel, Chavalier, Suskind, Harris and other Latin American authors have been for me of great inspiration. Their magic keeps haunting me."
Where Sepja let this writer down, unfortunately, is towards the end, with the inclusion of 10 extraneous short stories, most of them unpublished, although a couple had already appeared in publications like Il-Malti. While the quality of these stories is, for the most part, up to Trevor Zahra's usual standard, their inclusion succeeds in ruining the concept (and therefore the whole point) of this collection. Trevor Zahra, ever self-critical, acknowledges the fact, too.
"After I wrapped up the stories which comprise Sepja, I stumbled on some interesting themes, ideal for minuscule narratives which could be summed up into two or three pages. It took me seven years to compile Sepja... imagine how long it would take me to write some 50 such little stories for another good collection. At my age I can't afford to wait that long, and I hate the idea of them being published posthumously. In the end I chose the lesser of the two evils and included them in Sepja."
All things considered, Sepja is a brilliant return to form, following a couple of below-par outings (the seemingly rushed Sfidi and the sketchy Il-Kitba Kreattiva spring to mind) from one of the more important - and arguably more underrated - writers of his generation. And without those superfluous "extras" tacked on at the end, this really could have been the best collection of his peerless career.
• Mr Stagno is the author of two novels. He will be spending his summer holidays in rural Belgium, working hard on his third, long-overdue, book.
• A review copy of this title was provided by the publisher.
Trevor Zahra, who turns 60 later this year, agrees that the wait has been long, but as he goes to great lengths to explain, he hasn't exactly been dozing off. "During these seven years I've published and illustrated six books for children, three short novels for teenagers, six workbooks in collaboration with Clare Azzopardi, one poetry book for children, another book of satirical poems for adults, the award-winning book about the mischievous Red Rabbit (X'Tixtiequ Jaghmel il-Fenek?) and translated about 10 children's booklets. So I was keeping myself busy. Unfortunately, although it might seem like I produce a considerable amount of work, when it comes to adult short stories I'm a very slow writer."
Sepja brings together 10 new stories, many of them as good as anything Trevor Zahra has ever written. Wisely enough, XahxiehVjola and Fjuri ta' l-Arzell (another story featuring the same family, and which had also appeared in Provenz) have been included in this collection, too. Across 250-odd pages, a quick-witted narrator with a penchant for hyperbole looks back upon an idyllic childhood spent in the company of some of the most memorable characters yet to end up in a Trevor Zahra book. There's the grumpy, no-nonsense grandfather; the matriarchal, prudish grandmother; and then the most eccentric assortment of aunts and uncles this side of the Addams Family.
"Sepja is 90 per cent autobiographical," admits Trevor Zahra when I point out that the book's narrator - a teacher with a knack for storytelling - sounds suspiciously like himself. "My childhood and family history are the backdrop to these narratives The aunts and uncles in the book are modelled on the authentic ones... with just that little pinch of added spice. The story lines sprout from real life situations, even though some of them might seem bizarre and weird."
Seven years after its first appearance in print, Xahxieh Vjola remains a veritable tour de force, and arguably the finest piece of fiction ever written by Trevor Zahra. Presented as a series of 17 vignettes, each segment begins with a description of a sepia-tinted photograph and goes on to tell the story behind that particular picture. The tone here, as in the rest of the stories, is conversational and conspiratorial - on numerous occasions we are let in on a number of secrets relating to various members of the narrator's family: Auntie Bettie's homosexual affair with Frangiska, for example, or plump Zija Ofelja's marital infidelities.
One point worthy of mention is that many of the stories in this collection flirt with magical realism, a genre very much close to Trevor Zahra's heart.
"Whether I'm writing for children or for adults,' explains the author, "somehow I'm always writing about childhood. And although, as I said earlier, most of my stories are autobiographical, the magical lure of our first experiences is always present. Writers like Rushdie, Kundera, Marquez, Garner, Esquivel, Chavalier, Suskind, Harris and other Latin American authors have been for me of great inspiration. Their magic keeps haunting me."
Where Sepja let this writer down, unfortunately, is towards the end, with the inclusion of 10 extraneous short stories, most of them unpublished, although a couple had already appeared in publications like Il-Malti. While the quality of these stories is, for the most part, up to Trevor Zahra's usual standard, their inclusion succeeds in ruining the concept (and therefore the whole point) of this collection. Trevor Zahra, ever self-critical, acknowledges the fact, too.
"After I wrapped up the stories which comprise Sepja, I stumbled on some interesting themes, ideal for minuscule narratives which could be summed up into two or three pages. It took me seven years to compile Sepja... imagine how long it would take me to write some 50 such little stories for another good collection. At my age I can't afford to wait that long, and I hate the idea of them being published posthumously. In the end I chose the lesser of the two evils and included them in Sepja."
All things considered, Sepja is a brilliant return to form, following a couple of below-par outings (the seemingly rushed Sfidi and the sketchy Il-Kitba Kreattiva spring to mind) from one of the more important - and arguably more underrated - writers of his generation. And without those superfluous "extras" tacked on at the end, this really could have been the best collection of his peerless career.
• Mr Stagno is the author of two novels. He will be spending his summer holidays in rural Belgium, working hard on his third, long-overdue, book.
• A review copy of this title was provided by the publisher.