Description Maltese Artist and Author Anna Grima, launches her cross-genre historical fiction picture book, Tahaya: Tales of the Tal-Qadi Stone. With a master’s degree in storytelling across media and after extensively researching Malta’s temple culture, Anna invites readers into her story’s realm. Grima’s large canvases, pastels, and watercolours are transformed into over a hundred book illustrations cohesively incorporated and woven into an immersive story that brings Tahaya and the Shamash family to life. Some 4,600 years ago, under a fated Harvest Moon, a young girl named Tahaya and her tribe arrive in Melit, seeking refuge from a distant land. Tahaya is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps, yet her true destiny begins to unfold when she discovers a broken stone, compelling her to learn how to make it whole again. Embarking on a coming-of-age journey, Tahaya delves into the mysteries of her heritage, uncovering her role in a time shaped by political upheaval, ecological challenges, and the enduring wisdom of the islands’ shamanic traditions. “Anna Grima is to be heartily commended for this original tale imbued with a mixture of reality and imagination, the timeless and the historical, the esoteric and the exoteric. It is sometimes distant and at times intimate, mysterious and at times palpable and graspable. Equally praiseworthy is her generous collection of excellent illustrations which merge well with the spirit of the text and extend an aura of magic reality.” Review by Philip Farrugia Randon
