has Malta as central but is about travel around the Mediterranean Sea as a solo woman in later life. The interludes are again used as a linking narrative set in Malta, now gripped by a pandemic that prevents travel. The mythical and historical stories of the women who are often hidden from history in the public monuments and museums visited by the traveller, Jessica, are researched and linked to her memories of life and travel. This is the first novel in the trilogy where first person narrative is used throughout and re-editing continues. I am looking for a publisher in Malta this time. An important element in your writing is the strong spiritual bond with the land you are born in. Reactions? Australian Aboriginal people believe that we all have a powerful connection to the place where we are born and if people are prevented from returning they are incomplete. Yet the history of humanity is one of migration. It is this contradiction that intrigues me.
AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPHINE BURDEN, AUTHOR OF WASHING UP IN MALTA AND SONGS FOR A BLIND DATE. I just read in a few days your first novel Washing Up in Malta (2012). This is part of a trilogy: a second published novel, Songs for a Blind Date (2013), and a third volume (still in the making) made up of short stories. I know that your first novel binds strongly with Malta. What about the second and third volume of this trilogy? Yes, Malta weaves through the lives of the two main characters, mother and daughter, in my first novel, Washing up in Malta. In a sense, Malta is a third character in the narrative. The second book, Songs for a Blind Date, retains a similar structure to the first in that the narrative traces the lives of two people, Jessica, one of the characters in Washing up in Malta, and Ernesto, a post-war child migrant from Italy to Australia. The stories are linked together in a third narrative running through the interludes and referring also to the first book. However, although Malta features, the focus is on migration to Australia and the love story of two people in an adopted land. The third book, Middle Sea Dreaming, once again
In Washing Up in Malta you recorded changes that happened in Malta along the years. How do you see Malta today compared to that of the 60s, 70s and 80s? One of the interludes in Washing up in Malta records the return of the narrator to St George’s Bay 50 years after she lived there as a young girl. I write about the profound sadness in finding our memories concreted over and erased. The Malta we have created today is unsustainable. I don’t refer to nostalgia for a way of life that no longer exists but to the overexploitation of the natural resources of Malta. Wherever I can, I support those NGOs and activist groups who resist the overdevelopment of the land and increasingly now the sea. When I came to live in Valletta over a decade ago, I did not get a car, as one of the reasons for my move from Australia was that I wanted to be part of the change towards a sustainable future. Malta is small and presents the opportunity of developing a transport system that is not car dependent. But I think we have lost our way and I no longer enjoy walking or taking the bus. Do you consider your writing feminist? Male characters are just passers-by. Grace (mother) and Jessica (daughter) are the real solid characters in
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