This collection of stories brings Rosanne Dingli's recollections of Malta vividly to life. Some are family anecdotes, some are folkloric, and others are figments of the author's imagination. The reader's task is to distinguish which is which. In all the stories, one can feel the atmosphere and enjoy the descriptions of place, time and people of this Mediterranean island, whether they embellish a mystery, a journey, a lover's dilemma or a family saga. "Rosanne Dingli's impressive stories bristle with drama, reflect quietly on memories, contemplate the power of nostalgia ..." Dr Dennis Haskell,...

A fast-moving yet poignant art heist adventure, Camera Obscura is one desperate man's struggle with obsessive love. When an explosion in a cafe blasts a mysterious woman into Bart Zacharin's life, he is not prepared for what follows. Nothing but a monotonous existence in Western Australia and a dull photographer's job stand in his way to pursue Minnie Cuff. Now, he must compete with a million-dollar crime empire, search for meaning and belonging, and battle frustration by bad luck and misadventure. Her attraction becomes a fixation, no matter how many lies she tells. It escalates into a chase...

A doctor returns to a dilapidated mansion after 25 years, seeking something he thinks he saw on his honeymoon. Obsessed about the house and its history, he has dreams of restoring it and starting a business. Uncertain whether his deteriorating marriage will sustain such a plan, unsure whether a madcap scheme to start a guesthouse is even worth considering, he becomes as haunted as the locals say the house is. Memories, visions and dreams merge to present something inescapable; the story of a young woman whose life, whose possessions, could not be extinguished or destroyed by time or death....

At a crumbling but beautiful villa on the Fiesole hills outside Florence, four siblings reunite for the funeral of their mother, Nina Larkin. They bring with them light suitcases, and hearts heavy not only with grief, but also with small mysteries from childhood, grown large with age and time. All in their fifties now, and all with their particular variety of experiences, they remember what it was like to holiday in those hills. Youthful memories rarely match; the four recall their mother very differently. The inheritance they hope to take away is bound up in Nina Larkin's will. The only...