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Indie publisher bringing you the best stories from and about the Mediterranean. '26 Int Booker longlisted. Discover, support and buy on our site.

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Love, lust, adulthood and an ancient Fiat in one long hot Maltese summer.

School’s out for summer, and for our unnamed narrator, that means three months away from his physics high school students to tinker with his ancient Fiat 131 and fret about his all-consuming obsession: Sarah, a tempestuous artist he met online. They sleep together, they text obsessively, but as July’s barbecues and boat trips segue into August’s festi, their intimate moments always reset into platonic disappointment, and she increasingly ghosts him in favour of an ever-changing group of new besties.
A sensation on its home island, this book gives poignant voice to a regular guy in his early thirties, trying to get a grip on love, life and growing up, and it paints a high-octane portrait of what it means to live in the hedonistic, overcrowded, workaholic, claustrophobic, contradictory mind-blast that is Malta.

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“The only novel an author has to write before they can retire for the rest of their lives. It captures the spirit of the times.” MARK VELLA

“Falzon’s novel captures the millennial and Gen Z experience against the backdrop of a scorching Maltese summer. Vintage cars, excessive drinking and moral ambiguity frame the story.” THE TIMES OF MALTA

“From the very first page, it puts you in the passenger seat and drives you at breakneck speed through every street, bypass and flyover on the island as it is today.” LORANNE VELLA

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YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Prize and the author won Malta’s National Book Prize for Best emerging Author in 2024. It is the winner of a PEN Translates award.

Available now from Bookshops and from our website (link in bio)

#bookluanch #malteseliterature #ryanfalzon #translatedbooks #mediterranean #maltesefiction #joegatt #foundryeditions taken in Malta, Europe by @foundryeditions

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a month ago

PARADISO by Michele Masneri and translated from Italian by Richard Village is OUT NOW!

Described as a Fellini film colliding with The White Lotus, this book is a darkly comic satire on power, cultural currency and the enduring legacy in the Eternal City.

A great summer romp of a book and a great portrait of post-Dolce Vita Rome, with unforgettable characters, and the perfect mix of comedy with dark undertones that give it real bite. It’s gossipy, transporting and as Italian as an Aperol spritz (which it would go very well with).

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“No Italian author for a couple of generations has found such a pitch-perfect balance between cattiness and literary elegance and depth.” VINCENZO LATRONICO, Author of PERFECTION

“The book everyone is talking about. By our sharpest writer, who is as cynical as he is tender” LUCA GUADAGNINO, Director of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

“Its satire, drama and lush scenery mask a core of darkness. The decadence hidden beneath the cultural posturing and nostalgia create a surreal mix of beauty and grotesque decay.” BOOKBLAST

“A darkly comic journey through the Roman night, among eccentric characters and disenchanted glamour” CORRIERE DELLA SERA

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On the hottest day of the hottest summer anyone in Milan can remember, young journalist Federico Desideri is sent on an assignment: to interview Italy's latest Oscar-winning film director. But in Rome. A world away from the reassuring familiarity of his native city.

When the director turns out to be elusive, and the Romans as rough as their reputation, Federico falls in with Barry Volpicelli, a seductive, fast-talking, America-obsessed rogue and supposed inspiration for the winning movie's lead character. Instead of nailing the interview, he finds himself in Paradiso, a gloriously decadent seaside estate with an eccentric cast of inhabitants. But is everything there as heavenly as its name suggests?

PARADISO is available now from Bookshops and from our website (link in bio)

#bookluanch #itlaianliterature #michelemasneri #translatedbooks #mediterranean #itlianfiction #richardvillage #foundryeditions by @foundryeditions

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2 months ago

We are thrilled that our wonderful THE DUKE has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. We are in love with its glorious writing, its unputdownable storytelling and its eponymous lead, who surely, amongst brilliant friends, a Leopard and a philosophising Sicilian detective, must enter the pantheon of great Italian literary characters to make it into English. Judges: thank you dal cuore. Readers and future readers: we hope it speaks to you as it does to us.

From the author, Matteo Melchiorre: “This is an extraordinary surprise, truly extraordinary. THE DUKE is a book that aims to speak about the margins, about places on the border, about places where time seems to have stopped, and where any future seems impossible. And yet, this story about the margins also has something to say about the wider world, far from the small, apparently insignificant corner of the planet that serves as its backdrop. The present day is also that of Vallorgàna. I am truly touched: for The Duke to be on the International Booker Prize longlist makes me more convinced that, on the margins, in these ostensible ‘wastelands’ of the West, powerful stories still lie in wait, stories that ring true, that speak to our most fundamental passions, and that help us dream about, and discover, different futures.”

From the translator, Antonella Lettieri “THE DUKE is a novel that truly spoke to my soul from the moment I started reading it, and I have been championing it passionately ever since. It’s a great honour for my work to be included in the International Booker Prize longlist, but what makes me the happiest at the moment is the thought of the many readers who will have the joy of discovering The Duke in the next few weeks. It truly deserves it, and I’m thrilled I played a role in helping it reach a wider audience.”

Do visit our website to find out more and read an extract (link in bio)

#bookerprize #internationalbookerprize #bookerlonglist #matteomelchiorre #antonellalettieri #foundryeditions #italianliterature #tranlatedliterature by @foundryeditions

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5 months ago

Introducing our Summer Sale! Our Summer Best Sellers are now 15% off in July, and 25% off if you buy more than three.

Foundry Editions books are the perfect companions for your Summer. We’ve picked six of our bestsellers whether you’re looking for an unputdownable summer belter or something meatier to get your teeth into whilst you have the time to get stuck in.

DEEPFAKE - Stylish, political noir set against a burning Athenian summer.
PARADISO - Fellini meets The White Lotus in a scorching, satirical romp through the Eternal City.
YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME - A millennial man’s adventures with love, lust, adulthood and an ancient Fiat over one long hot Maltese summer.
YOUR LITTLE MATTER - A devastating story of motherhood, abandonment and the real lives of women in Sixties Italy. Non-fiction Ferrante.
THE DUKE - A timeless contemporary epic from high in the Dolomites, about our relationships with history, power and the natural world.
REPATRIATION - Grief, family lies and the postcolonial condition in one woman’s attempt to repatriate her father’s body to France.

Visit our website to get this exclusive deal on your Mediterranean Summer reads.

#readaroundtheworld #summersale #discountedbooks #foundryeditions by @foundryeditions

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2 days ago

The one where it all began.

With just one week to go until our next Opt Indie Book Club, and before tickets go on sale for our next Crossing Borders event, it felt like the perfect time to look back at where it all started.

Our very first book club pick was Brandy Sour by @soteriouconstantia, translated by Lina Protopapa, and published by @foundryeditions as their very first release. That first event was especially close to our hearts, as it gave us the chance not only to read the book together, but also to talk with Constantia and @richardbvillage from Foundry in person about the novel, its translation, and the ideas behind the press. It was such a special evening, and the beginning of a wonderful relationship with a publisher whose books have become such a big part of what we do.

In the past two years, Foundry Editions has introduced English-language readers to remarkable voices from across the Mediterranean, publishing 15 books, each as distinctive as the last. We’re so grateful to have celebrated so many of them with you along the way.

This September, we’ll be returning to the @fqnewcastle, where it all began, to welcome author @ryanfalzonreads to discuss You Know The Sun Bothers Me. Set over one long, sizzling Maltese summer, it’s funny and poignant, razor-sharp, and we can’t wait to chat with you all about it.

Tickets for the event go on sale this week, so keep your eyes peeled for more news.

(📸: Brandy Sour pictured here with a tower of nearly every Foundry book released in the past two years. Missing a few… leant out to friends to share the love.) taken in North East UK by @foundryeditions

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8 days ago

🌴🍸 PARADISO is a great summer romp of a book and a fascinating portrait of post-Dolce Vita Rome, with unforgettable characters, and the perfect mix of comedy with dark undertones that give it real bite. It’s gossipy, transporting and as Italian as an Aperol spritz (which it would go very well with).

“No Italian author for a couple of generations has found such a pitch-perfect balance between cattiness and literary elegance and depth.” VINCENZO LATRONICO, Author of PERFECTION

“The book everyone is talking about. By our sharpest writer, who is as cynical as he is tender” LUCA GUADAGNINO, Director of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

“Its satire, drama and lush scenery mask a core of darkness. The decadence hidden beneath the cultural posturing and nostalgia create a surreal mix of beauty and grotesque decay.” BOOKBLAST

“A darkly comic journey through the Roman night, among eccentric characters and disenchanted glamour” CORRIERE DELLA SERA

On the hottest day of the hottest summer anyone in Milan can remember, young journalist Federico Desideri is sent on an assignment: to interview Italy’s latest Oscar-winning film director. But in Rome. A world away from the reassuring familiarity of his native city.
When the director turns out to be elusive, and the Romans as rough as their reputation, Federico falls in with Barry Volpicelli, a seductive, fast-talking, America-obsessed rogue and supposed inspiration for the winning movie’s lead character. Instead of nailing the interview, he finds himself in Paradiso, a gloriously decadent seaside estate with an eccentric cast of inhabitants. But is everything there as heavenly as its name suggests?

PARADISO by Michele Masneri and translated from Italian by Richard Village is available now from bookshops and from our website (link in bio).

#SummerReads #ItalianLiterature #TranslatedBooks #Mediterranean #ItalianFiction by @foundryeditions

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10 days ago

We are delighted to introduce RYAN FALZON, the author of our newest title YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME and a Renaissance man who beyond writing this, the best selling Maltese language book of the Century so far, is also an accomplished and well known artist in his home island of Malta.

Falzon tells us about his book: “YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME is a portrait of contemporary Malta at its rawest and most unfiltered. Set over the course of a summer, it explores lust, excess, nightlife, heatwaves, and the peculiar melancholy that lingers beneath the Mediterranean sun.”

Ryan Falzon, born in Malta in 1988, is a visual artist and published author. Since 2011, Falzon has published several short pieces in various publications. SAJF (YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME), the first novel by Falzon, was published in 2022 and was shortlisted for NBC 2023 National Book Prize. In 2024, Falzon was awarded the National Prize for the Best Emergent Author. **

“I felt compelled to capture a particular moment in time and space: the rapid transformation of the island, the way physical and digital realities increasingly overlap, and the sense of living simultaneously in both worlds. The novel is also rooted in the experience of being in your late twenties, a period marked by opportunity, freedom, excitement, and discovery. At the same time, it is an age that brings an awareness that adolescence and early adulthood are drawing to a close, creating a desire to experience as much as possible before a chapter of life comes to an end. YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME grew out of that tension between possibility and impermanence..

YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME is, essentially, an insider’s perspective on contemporary Malta. It is gritty and fast-paced. It is a testimony to car culture, nightlife, lust, situationships, and the peculiar form of Mediterranean existentialism that runs beneath everyday life on the island.”

YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME is out now!

#malteseliterature #readaroundtheworld #malteseculture #malta #ryanfalzon #joegatt #foundryeditions by @foundryeditions

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16 days ago

We just wanted to let you know that FAR (Number 3) and THE LITTLE I KNEW (Number 8) are now back in stock, just in time for the summer holidays. We know that some of you have been waiting for these, and thank you for your patience. We are so pleased to have these two wonderful books back, and for the Foundry Editions collection to be complete once more.

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FAR by Rosa Ribas, and translated from Spanish by Charlotte Coombe

Rivalries, tensions, mystery and love on a half-finished housing development, far from anywhere

In an urbanisation in the middle of the nowhere, one of the many that were built in Spain, but never finished because of the crash, lives a small community of neighbours, trying to lead a normal life, despite living far from everything. Beyond the development that promised every luxury, beyond the asphalted streets and roundabouts leading nowhere, behind high metal fences, the unfinished, unsold houses menace the inhabitants as they become occupied by people who the crash has destroyed, who have fallen through the cracks, who have become marginal in society.

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THE LITTE I KNEW by Chiara Valerio and translated from Italian by Ailsa Wood

The secrets and silences of women’s lives in a Roman seaside town

In Scauri, an end of the line seaside town forty miles or so from Rome, Vittoria dies unexpectedly in her bath. Whilst the townsfolk meet the event with sad but respectful southern Italian silence, Lea, the town lawyer, wants to investigate. Who was Vittoria, what were her secrets, why had she mysteriously arrived in Scauri thirty years earlier? And was her relationship with Lea all that it seemed?

#spainishliterature #italianliterature #readaroundtheworld #rosaribas #chiaravalerio #charlottecoombe #ailsawood #foundryeditions by @foundryeditions

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16 days ago

Our latest title YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME by Ryan Falzon is our first from the Maltese language, and one of very few to be translated into English. We are very excited to have such a wonderful novel that gives a real insight into modern Malta in such an entertaining way, but also that it is translated from such a unique language. (Swipe to see the original ➡️)

Joe Gatt, the translator of YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME and a Founder and Editor of Maltese language literary journal APHROCONFUSO tells us about the Maltese language and why it’s so unique:
“When the Fatimid Caliphate resettled the Maltese islands almost exactly one thousand years ago, they brought with them Siculo-Arabic, a variant of the Arabic language which was spoken in Sicily at the time. Eventually, this became the Maltese language, acquiring a substantial layer of Italian vocabulary, and more recently a large injection of English. Although it has also acquired some syntactical features of Romance languages, at its core, it remains a Semitic language, the only one written in the Latin alphabet. Its literature is much more recent, not least because the written form of Maltese only properly took hold in the 20th Century after getting caught up in a protracted struggle between English, the language of its latest coloniser, and centuries-old cultural ties with nearby Italy. It is very much a living language, spoken by nearly everyone born on the islands, but frequently has to compete with English in many public contexts. In some ways, it remains as embattled as ever.”

We love how literature can cross borders and give readers insights into other cultures and lives, and YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME does that in spades!

#booksintranslation #readaroundtheworld #youknowthesunbothersme #summerreads #malta taken in Malta, Europe by @foundryeditions

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22 days ago

On this, the hottest day of the year so far, we thought it appropriate to talk about our newest title, YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME. As we swelter in this heatwave, we get a feel for the atmosphere of this book set in the interminable summer heat of Malta. The title was chosen by the translator, Joe Gatt, who tells us about why he selected it:

“In Maltese, the novel is called “SAJF”, which simply means “Summer”, far too generic a title in the English-language context. When I was asked to come up with a few titles, I turned to the novel itself. “You know the sun bothers me”, is a line spoken by the protagonist. I think it really fits the novel because it evokes the weariness that sets in as the summer drags on, and the weight of the sun becomes increasingly oppressive, weighing heavily on neverending afternoons. Also, I know it must appear quirky to readers who did not grow up in the southern Mediterranean, almost ungrateful. In reality, it’s a common sentiment and in many ways, Mediterranean life is organised against the sun; early mornings, late nights, siestas. Ubiquitous air conditioning has changed this to an extent, but to many, looking for the shade remains the quintessential summer activity.”

A sensation on its home island, this book gives poignant voice to a regular guy in his early thirties, trying to get a grip on love, life and growing up, and it paints a high-octane portrait of what it means to live in the hedonistic, overcrowded, workaholic, claustrophobic, contradictory mind-blast that is Malta.

YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Prize and the author Ryan Falzon won Malta’s National Book Prize for Best emerging Author in 2024. It is the winner of a PEN Translates award.

We hope you all find some shade to shelter from this heat!

YOU KNOW THE SUN BOTHERS ME is out now.

#malteseculture #malteseliterature #summer #heatwave #readaroundtheworld #joegatt #ryanfalzon by @foundryeditions

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a month ago

We love Independent Bookshop Week when we can get involved with the wonderful shops who do so much to support us. This year, we twinned with two fantastic ones, who have both created vibrant communities of avid readers where they are based and are huge promoters of Foundry and our books.

Mostly Books in Abingdon, near Oxford is one of two bookshops run by dynamo Sarah Dennis. A day with her was a real introduction into the nitty-gritty of bookselling - seeing how stock decisions are made, how new books get merchandised and promoted in store - which is something us publishers rarely get to witness.

Next up was West Kirby Books in the glorious seaside town of West Kirby on the Wirral. The brainchild of the irrepressible Jordan and Dan, who have created a literary haven, we did a Q&A to a packed house (on a summer’s Friday evening to boot) and spent the day as booksellers for our books and some of our non-Foundry favourites the following day.

It has been really wonderful to meet so many of you Foundry readers and talk about books with you all! The whole week was hugely positive and showed how many people just love the simple pleasure of a book, and how when booksellers bring them together, they create something that’s magical.

#independentbookshopweek #mostlybooks #westkirbybookshop #foundryeditions #booksellerassociation by @foundryeditions

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a month ago

Four mini Foundry reviews:

Paradiso by Michele Masneri (tr. from the Italian by Richard Village)
Paradiso follows the most passive main character I’ve ever met as he tries to secure an interview with a world renowned director. The situations he manages to get himself into are unbelievable, and this book gave me the feels of The Great Gatsby (which is one of my favourite books of all time) with the crazy cast of characters and events and locations. I was worried I would miss references but I feel like the translation was so brilliant that everything made sense, even to outsiders.

Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou (tr. from the Greek by Lina Protopapa)
Brandy Sour tells us stories in fragments and drink/miscellaneous recipes that pass through alongside the guests and workers of the grand Ledra Palace Hotel. The storytelling here was so unique, and with it being given to us from so many perspectives and points of view, you really got a grand view at the occurrences of this time period. Sad, funny, grim, cheeky, each recipe gave us something new to contemplate.

Just A Little Dinner by Cécile Tlili (tr. from the French by Katherine Gregor)
Dinner follows four friends as they share one fateful dinner together on a warm night in Paris. The premise is so simple, yet the characters are so well built and give us so much depth that makes this such a compelling dinner party to read about. We get so much back story alongside the current, more pressing events of the evening that gives this book so many layers and makes it so propulsive to read.

Spanish Beauty by Esther García Llovet (tr. from the Spanish by Richard Village)
Spanish Beauty follows Michela, a bit of a dodgy police officer as she chases down a lighter through the even dodgier underbelly of Benidorm. Once again, the characters here are so strong and real, you can truly imagine every person discussed as someone you come across in Benidorm. Michela is cold and a little bit ruthless, but I couldn’t help but root for her as she had all these dodgy dealings happening. The tension is palpable and I couldn’t get enough. by @foundryeditions

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