The Maltese version of the best-selling collection of ghost stories, The Unexplained, has finally been published, thanks to an encounter at a murder site.
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Author Vanessa Macdonald – who is also a journalist – had gone to Ħal Far in June 2010 after reports that a murder victim had been found in a field there. While waiting for more details to emerge, one of the police officers sauntered over to introduce himself, saying that he was a keen fan of her original book, which had been published almost a decade earlier, as well as the sequel: The Unexplained Plus.
The reason for his interest became clear when Charles Zarb admitted that he had written a book of ghost stories himself. The two authors spent a short time comparing notes before he was called away – but not before the two of them lamented how eager they were to get their books to a different audience: an English-speaking one in the case of Mr Zarb, and a Maltese one in the case of Ms Macdonald.
This dream had always remained out of reach because of the prohibitive cost of getting a translator.
It was only a few days later that it occured to Ms Macdonald that there might be a solution: they could translate each other’s books. Contact was eventually made, the manuscripts were exchanged and the work commenced.
“It took much longer than we thought, with a considerable number of e-mails to make sure that we captured the right nuances of each paragraph. Mr Zarb roped in his wife Sylvia to help – and slowly but surely, the books took shape. Rather more slowly than we thought!” she said.
Mr Zarb’s book was published some time ago but Ms Macdonald’s was put on hold for some years. Ta’ Barra Minn Hawn has now been published by Midsea Books Ltd and will be be on sale at the Malta Book Festivalbeing held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
Ta’ Barra Minn Hawn is a collection of first-hand stories told to the author during interviews carried out over a number of years in Malta and overseas.
Her fascination with ghost stories was prompted by Ms Macdonald’s own experience sailing across the Atlantic on a boat haunted by its previous owner.
However, the author thought that it would be more interesting to approach the subject as a journalist, trying to get as close to the original version of the truth – unembellished by re-telling across generations – by doing interviews with the persons who had actually gone through the unexplained experience themselves.
The result is a collection of over 50 stories, some spine-chilling, some poignant and some simply bizarre.