June 2026
Hello,
Welcome to June. I can’t help but be disappointed that it’s stopped flaming! I was really getting used to the warmth on my bones and the blue skies, and feel rather miffed that it seems to have vanished. All the more reason to have another Mediterranean meander to keep memories of the sun alive. Buckle up, though, because this might be a long one. May was a busy month, and June promises to be even busier, so there’s quite a lot to talk about.
Last month I confessed I hadn’t been to Greece. Well, on June 16th we launch our first book from another Mediterranean country on my yet-to-visit list, Malta. You Know the Sun Bothers Me, by Ryan Falzon and translated by Joe Gatt is our first title to be translated from Maltese, and goodness, it’s a goodie. Set during one long summer, it takes us deep into the mind and under the skin of our unnamed narrator, as he navigates love, lust, living, social media and spare parts for a vintage Fiat 131. The book has been a huge hit on its home island, one of the Maltese language’s bestsellers and is widely touted as the voice of Malta’s young generation. We can’t wait for people here to get their hands on it and sink into millennial life in the hedonistic, overcrowded, workaholic, claustrophobic, contradictory mind-blast that is Malta.
The Duke may not have made the shortlist, but our International Booker Prize journey still reached a crescendo at the ceremony at Tate Modern on May 19th. For newbies like us it was a dazzling event. The crowd were warm and wonderful, the Turbine Hall looked spectacular, and the canapés were themed for the countries of the shortlisted books, leading to much speculation about what Dolomitic specialities we would have been tempted with, had we been in the final six. It was a wonderful celebration of the amazing work that allow us all to read increasingly widely across borders and we send our heartiest congratulations to Foundry friends and inspiration, And Other Stories for making it two in a row with Taiwan Travelogue.
Evviva Il Duca! Evviva Matteo ed Antonella!
If the socials are anything to go by, there’s a bit of a buzz about Michele Masneri’s Paradiso, which came out last month, and we’re absolutely thrilled that Michele is going to be in the UK for three gigs in the week of June 8th. We’re starting in Edinburgh with an event sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute at Toppings, then down to the Italian Cultural Institute in London, where Michele will be in conversation with Antonello Guerrero, the UK and Ireland correspondent of La Repubblica, then off to Borderless Books in Stroud, for some paradisiacal Cotswolds, and I’m promised, the odd glass of wine.
Independent Bookseller Week is a wonderful thing. A chance for indies all over the country to shout even louder and prouder than they usually do about the fantastic literary and community building roles they play in all our lives. This year we’re really proud to be collaborating with two great shops, Mostly Books in Abingdon and West Kirby Books on the Wirral, both enviable literary hubs. I’m excited to be joining the irrepressible Jordan and Dan at West Kirby for a Meet the Publisher evening on Friday 19th and I’m hoping to be bookselling for a day in both shops. If you’re nearby, it’d be lovely to say hello. Oxfordshire definitely has a sniff of the Provence hills about it and, if you squint, the Wirral coast could well be Capri.
Meeting our authors in the flesh for the first time is always a thrill. Obviously, we are in touch with them before publication and work hard with them and their representatives to bring them to our readers in the UK but actually getting to sit down and hang out is a great thing. It was brilliant that Makis Malafekas, he of Deepfake was asked to speak on a panel at the European Writers’ Festival with Norwegian creator of the Wisting detective series, Jørn Lier Horst and Hungarian novelist, Krisztina Tóth. Makis was brilliant, engaging, cosmopolitan and philosophical – everything we could wish for from our Greek noir author. His reading from the first chapter of Deepfake will give you a taste. Chapeau, also, to friend of Foundry, Rosie Goldsmith for putting together such an inspiring programme. The weekend was an inspiration, with writers from every corner of the continent talking about their works, including two of my very favourite young European authors (sadly not published by us) Vincenzo Latronico and Beatriz Serrano, who I was lucky enough to meet. Fingers crossed that the Festival will be back for a 2027 edition; look out for it, because it’s an absolute must for lovers of literature in translation.
With all the dashing around, there’s not been much time for a lot else. I did make it to the Zurbarán exhibition at the National Gallery to satisfy my Spanish Golden Age visual cravings, although my response was not quite as ecstatic as the experiences of the painted saints on the walls. He is an astounding painter, don’t get me wrong, particularly the richness of his surfaces, in the fabrics of his figures, in the elements of his still lives, and of course in the fleece of his famous Lamb of God. Somehow, though, and more than most artists of religious subjects, his devotional work, which so depends on chiaroscuro and his handling of light, seemed oddly uncomfortable under the interrogatory lights of a grand gallery and I couldn’t help but think that the deep pathos and spirituality those looming monks and saintly visions inspire, would be better viewed somewhere brooding and ecclesiastical in Seville. This is not a reaction to Zurbarán’s work per se, more a musing on how to show old art that once served a very specific function and how to react when that purpose has vanished. If you don’t know Zurbarán’s painting, definitely try to go. It’s beautiful and speaks volumes about seventeenth century Spain, which is an endlessly fascinating time and place.
We’ll be back with more in July but in the meantime, hasta muy pronto
Richard
Richard Village
Editor
Foundry Editions