'Meta waqa' s-sema'

Author: Victoria Pisani

Publisher: Merlin Publishers / 2026

Pages: 264

Recently published by Merlin Publishers, Meta waqa' s-sema is a collection of eight short stories that strips away the veneer of decency in contemporary Malta to expose the absurd truth - which apparently nobody wants to acknowledge - lying beneath.

In Malta as imagined by Victoria Pisani, the sky is literally falling. Plastic is coming away piece by piece and raining down on people's heads while, beneath it, everyone carries on regardless, distracted by one thing or another. Some are excitedly awaiting this year's Expo edition; others are furiously debating the future of the Maltese language (and whether sema is masculine or feminine); while others simply stare blankly at their phones. Almost no one looks up - not even when people start getting hurt, or even killed. This refusal to look at ourselves, at one another, and at the disaster unfolding before our eyes, is the unsettling core of Pisani's debut short story collection.

These stories - sometimes savage, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes unexpectedly tender - point an accusing finger at a society so intent on keeping up appearances that it can no longer see itself as it truly is, even as the sky comes crashing down around it. Each story stands apart, entirely distinct from the others, yet together they form a single unflinching portrait.

The collection introduces us, among others, to Jonathan and Mandy, as they attempt to bridge the distance between them with an erotic dice set; to Debbie, who calls the mental health helpline 13 times in one week while living in a near-future Malta where adverts have become compulsory viewing; to a rebellious grandfather, a spaced-out father and a praying mantis in the throes of a crisis; and to a society so obsessed with the purity of the Maltese language that it keeps arguing over grammar with the same fervour as those rearranging the proverbial deckchairs on the Titanic.

Pisani discovered literature at the age of 24 and began writing these stories shortly afterwards. Open to a wide range of literary styles, but with a particular fondness for satire and the absurd, her favourite authors include Mikhail Bulgakov, Anthony Burgess, Flannery O'Connor, Don DeLillo, Michel Houellebecq, Will Self and Marlon James, while the filmmaker who fascinates her most is Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She studied computer science and engineering and has worked across various areas of technology. She now lives and works outside Malta.

"I wrote most of these stories when I was in my 20s," says Pisani. "I started scribbling Dwett almost as a joke, and to take a break from another story that was frustrating me. And I'd been dreaming of writing Tifel tad-deheb for years. Every story has its own journey, but I always had the idea of bringing them together into some kind of tragicomic collection."

The book's cover, designed by artist Pierre Portelli, features a jagged piece of blue sky, like a shard of pointed glass, descending over the book's title, almost pushing it off the cover altogether. A grey, anonymous crowd gathers on the back cover, allowing Portelli to capture, in a single scene, both the threat and the absurdity running through the incisive stories in this collection.

Perhaps what makes this collection so powerful is that it isn't afraid to strip things bare. Writing in Maltese that is as pure, raw and colourful as the language spoken in the street, Pisani keeps scraping and peeling away, layer after layer, at decency, pretension and distraction, until nothing is left but us Maltese, naked before the mirror. In Meta waqa' s-sema, crisis and comedy walk hand in hand, but beneath the laughter the writing is dead serious. With her new, powerful and fearless voice, Pisani invites us, challenges us - or indeed, provokes us - to look into this cracked mirror at our lives in our own country, with no filters, no touch-ups ... and no corners cut.

Meta waqa' s-sema is not a book for everyone. It's only for those who are willing to look up - and to look closely. For them, it's available for sale in all bookshops, or online directly from www.merlinpublishers.com