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 get obsessed with her and end up following her around in the streets?

This is exactly what happens in a short story in Vespri, Trevor Żahra's award-winning short story collection, when traffic goes to the narrator's head; he starts chasing a Nissan Terrano with the number plate JES 010, driven by a platinum blonde girl.

Żahra's short stories depict a delightful conglomeration of characters and situations from everyday life, touching upon different themes such as sex, music and death. Each character comes to life when an odd curiosity, a harmless observation or a weak trait is spun into a tale. And that 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 senses: 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 author his umpteenth National Book award. Now, a few years later, it has been translated into English and is available as Vespers to make Żahra's writing accessible to English-language readers.

Clare Vassallo's beautiful 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 writing that make this book another remarkable reading experience.

Now anyone who prefers reading in English, whether by choice or because they don't understand Maltese can enjoy some of Malta's best literary talent.

'Vespers' is available from all bookshops or online directly from www.merlinpublishers.com with free postage to Malta and Gozo.