🚀 COVER REVEAL / PRE-ORDER LINK IS LIVE / FREE SHIPPING 🚀
We’re over the moon to be launching the cover and pre-order link for @lorannevella ’s National Book Prize of Malta-winning novel ROKIT in an English translation by @graniteandrainbow . BEFORE THE ROCKET is the second book we’ve published by multi-award-winning Maltese author Loranne Vella and the second full-length translation by TA First Translation Prize-shortlisted translator Kat Storace, and we can’t wait for you to read their epic collaboration.
We’re offering FREE SHIPPING on all pre-orders from our website from today and up until the day before publication in September. We currently still ship to UK addresses only.
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Malta, 2064. The island is being battered by rising waves and scorching heat. The Italian regime has colonised Malta and is using it as a base for their space exploration programme. Following the tragic death of his grandmother and mentor, the famous photographer Rika Dimech, Petrel sets off in search of her roots, initially only planning to spend a couple of weeks on the occupied island. He soon finds himself entwined in its past, present and future, always gravitating towards the same house in the village of Ħaż-Żebbuġ... Before the Rocket is a masterful work of speculative fiction that launches readers on a gripping journey through time in pursuit of freedom.
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Winner of the National Book Prize of Malta 2018
Winner of a PEN Translates Award
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Cover design: Patrick Fisher @frontwardsdesign
Translation supported by the National Book Council of Malta and English PEN/Arts Council England
COVER REVEAL!!!
There’s more than one way to skin a rabbit…
When Amanda’s father dies, she feels compelled to visit Emma, the mother who abandoned her when she was still a child. Now with a family of her own, it feels urgent to Amanda that she investigate the silence surrounding her mother leaving, but also the death of her mother’s twin sister Cathy, a.k.a. K. Penza, the cult author of the Inspector Castillo crime novels, who was killed by a bomb during the violent and murky political climate of Malta in the 1980s.
Clare Azzopardi’s meta-detective novel irresistibly weaves the sleuthing of Amanda and Inspector Castillo, inviting the reader to unmask the real Cathy, Catherine, Kitty, K. Penza.
The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza by Clare Azzopardi translated from Maltese by Albert Gatt. Includes a Historical Note by Joe Gatt.
Coming this November, alongside our second anthology of New Maltese Writing.
@clareazzopardi
Cover design: @frontwardsdesign
With thanks to @nbc_malta for awarding us funding for both books.
🚀 Translated lit fans in Bristol! The brilliant @maxminervasbooks are running a book club on Loranne Vella's novel Before the Rocket in May, and the book's translator (and Praspar co-founder) Kat Storace will also be there to talk about translating and publishing the book with you! Order your copies through the bookshop and let them know you're coming 🚀
@graniteandrainbow@lorannevella
Big restock/new stock day! Restocking @lrbbookshop and @fiveleavesbookshop and sending books to new stockist @housmans_books ! Plus online orders to individual readers.
Always a pinch-us 🤏 moment when we send out our books! The two of us work on Praspar voluntarily on top of our full-time jobs and it means so much to have bookshop and reader support.
We're currently working on edits for our next book, more news soon!
If you're UK-based and can't make it to one of our stockists, you can order from our website. If you're a UK bookshop that would like to stock us, you can contact us via the contact form on our website.
@lorannevella@clareazzopardi@graniteandrainbow
Another London Book Fair done! This time Kat @graniteandrainbow was flying solo, moderating a panel on Maltese literature and dashing about for meetings and readings. In the first picture, you can see Loranne Vella with the Albanian translation of 'what will it take for me to leave'!
It's Wednesday which means another week in the bookshop! We've had a fresh drop of stock in from @prasparpress , the publisher of cutting-edge Maltese literature run by Kat Storace @graniteandrainbow and everyone's favourite fiction and non-fiction author, translator and multi-hyphenate @jencalleja_
Their latest publication is lorannevella Loranne Vella's Before the Rocket - a masterful work of speculative fiction that launches readers on a gripping journey through time in pursuit of freedom...
‘This is an explosive rocket of a novel’
—Jack Young, author of Island of Us: Conversations about Justice with Children
Malta, 2064.
The island is being battered by rising waves and scorching heat. The Italian regime has colonised Malta and is using it as a base for their space exploration programme. Following the tragic death of his grandmother and mentor, the famous photographer Rika Dimech, Petrel sets off in search of her roots, initially only planning to spend a couple of weeks on the occupied island. He soon finds himself entwined in its past, present and future, always gravitating towards the same house in the village of Ħaż-Żebbuġ…
Winner of the National Book Prize of Malta 2018.
Winner English PEN Translates Award.
‘I devoured every sentence. I was hooked by the book’s dynamic play of voices and forms, and I stayed for the story. Before the Rocket is richly imagined and wittily translated.’
— Norman Erikson Pasaribu, author of Happy Stories, Mostly
Now available online and in store!
Malta-based readers! We’ve managed to restock @il_lokal with most of our titles, snap them up while stocks last! 🌞 also pictured here: Sunset Exiles by @mj.camilleri , who has a story in Scintillas: New Maltese Writing 2 on display right above it🌵🍐
@clareazzopardi@lorannevella
Amazing to see Clare Azzopardi’s The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza, translated by Albert Gatt, in the Staff Recommendations @bricklanebookshop 💜 @clareazzopardi
Imagine our surprise on visiting the @lrbbookshop yesterday to find Before the Rocket pride of place both inside and in the window ! 🚀 We are so grateful for the longtime support of the LRB and all our indie bookshop stockists 🚀 Let us know if you spot any of our books out and about 👀
@lorannevella@graniteandrainbow
🗣 VOCE BOOK OF THE WEEK
📚 BEFORE THE ROCKET, by LORANNE VELLA, trans. from Maltese 🇲🇹 by KAT STORACE published by PRASPAR PRESS
✒️ ‘…Malta, 2064.
The island is being battered by rising waves and scorching heat. The Italian regime has colonised Malta and is using it as a base for their space exploration programme. Following the tragic death of his grandmother and mentor, the famous photographer Rika Dimech, Petrel sets off in search of her roots, initially only planning to spend a couple of weeks on the occupied island. He soon finds himself entwined in its past, present and future, always gravitating towards the same house in the village of Ħaż-Żebbuġ…
‘Before the Rocket’ is a masterful work of speculative fiction that launches readers on a gripping journey through time in pursuit of freedom....’
📚 BEFORE THE ROCKET is now in stock at Voce Books, priced £12.
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#beforetherocket #lorannevella #katstorace #prasparpress #vocebookoftheweek #vocebooks #vocebooksbirmingham #independentbookseller #independentbookselling #books #bookstagram #bookselling #birmingham #digbeth #thewarehousebirmingham
After a brilliant few days at “a weekend of books” with fellow Maltese indie presses @kotba_calleja & @aphroconfuso , we’re delighted to have dropped our remaining Malta stock at the wonderful @il_lokal ! Grab copies of Before the Rocket, The Lives and Deaths of K Penza, Scintillas: New Maltese Writing 2 and What Will It Take For Me To Leave while you can!
Second photo by @okeefeml
