Ryan Falzon

Ryan Falzon welcomed us to his studio in Żurrieq ahead of the Malta launch of You Know the Sun Bothers Me, his debut novel SAJF translated into English by Joe Gatt and published by Foundry Editions. We spoke to Ryan about writing, painting, translation, and finding creativity in an increasingly distracted world.

il-lokal:  Your debut novel SAJF is now reaching an English-speaking audience as You Know the Sun Bothers Me. How does it feel knowing the book is about to have a completely new life?

Ryan: It feels both exciting and surreal. When I first started writing SAJF, I never imagined it would travel beyond Malta, let alone find a new audience in another language. The novel is deeply rooted in a specific time and place, so seeing it take on a new life through translation feels like releasing it from my own hands. Seeing the translated edition displayed in the front windows of major bookshops in London and Paris was a particularly meaningful milestone. It was a moment where something that began as a very personal and local story suddenly occupied a much wider cultural space. 

il-lokal: You mentioned that when you first started writing, you never imagined the novel would travel beyond Malta. Did you know from the beginning that you were writing a novel?

Ryan: No, I barely imagined it would even become a complete novel. I write in fragments, and the novel began as a series of seemingly unrelated events. It was during the quasi-lockdowns of 2020 that I finally sat down and started weaving these fragments into a single narrative. The editing process with Glen Calleja was crucial in shaping the novel into its final form. 

il-lokal: As a painter, you're used to telling stories visually. What drew you towards telling one through words?

Ryan: I have always been drawn to narrative. In my work from the 2010s and earlier, storytelling was often more dominant than the visual aspect itself. Although I was always writing alongside my artistic practice, it took time for me to realise how important it is to choose the right medium for the right idea. What works visually may feel diluted in writing, just as what works in writing may feel overstated in painting. 

il-lokal: Do painting and writing come from the same creative instinct, or do they satisfy different parts of you? 

Ryan: They definitely satisfy different parts of me. Until a few years ago, even after SAJF was published, I kept these two practices largely distinct. In recent years, however, I have begun to merge them through installation works that incorporate sound and text. The curatorial framework for my last solo exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv, Firmament, revolved around this multidisciplinary approach, reflecting the way these different strands of my practice increasingly intersect. 

il-lokal: Has combining text, sound and painting changed the way you think about storytelling?

Ryan: SAJF runs parallel to a series of paintings titled Selfies, which has never been exhibited. Created in the late 2010s, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the series captures the milieu of the period - its speed, consumerism, virtual personas, and debauchery - all of which permeate SAJF. In the paintings, the body is treated as something consumable, frozen within a single image. The novel, by contrast, captures movement: the momentum of a fast night drive rather than a snapshot.

Car culture is another example of where writing allowed me to go further than painting. I could never depict it in paint in the way I envisioned without becoming overly literal or naïve. Funnily enough, I have always felt that cars are one of those subjects that either need to be painted realistically or not at all.

il-lokal: Your paintings have a very distinctive style and atmosphere. Do you think your visual language found its way into your writing as well?

Ryan: The references certainly did - the pop culture, millennial, and car culture imagery all carried over. In many ways, I treat my paintings as collages, where elements are deliberately added or omitted to construct imagined worlds rather than document reality. A similar approach informs SAJF. The writing is intentionally jumpy, often leaping from one climax to the next while omitting the actions in between. This creates a continuous wave of pleasure and intensity that mirrors a particular experience of a Maltese summer. The structure draws on the cut-up techniques of Beat writers, as well as other literary influences, including Richard Rayner.

il-lokal: What was it like seeing your work translated? Were you involved in the process, or did you prefer to let the translator find their own voice? 

Ryan: SAJF is definitely not an easy book to translate while preserving its original energy and character. This was something immediately recognised by the UK publisher. Joe Gatt, with whom I had previously collaborated on several projects, took on the translation. It was a conscious decision for me to step back, trust the process, and allow the translator to find his own voice within the work. 

il-lokal: Was there anything Joe's translation made you notice differently? 

Ryan: No, not really. It feels like branching out, but the essential core remains the same.

il-lokal: The title You Know the Sun Bothers Me is wonderfully evocative. What does the sun represent to you as a writer and as a painter?

Ryan: The sun represents the Mediterranean, where we are accustomed to living in light for most of the year and where we expect a heatwave or two every summer. The abundance of sunlight was one of the main reasons why I could never fully settle in a Northern European country, as I often find myself becoming melancholic under constant grey skies. Here, the irony is not lost: the book is about summer and sunlight, yet the protagonist repeatedly laments that the sun bothers him. This sense of indecisiveness and contradiction lingers throughout the novel, reflecting the tensions between desire and discomfort that shape the narrative.

il-lokal: Do ideas usually begin as images, sentences, emotions, or something harder to define?

Ryan: It is an eclectic mix of the above, and much more. There is no fixed formula. Sometimes inspiration comes from the most insignificant external stimulus: an Instagram story, junk mail, or a casual conversation overheard at the local grocery shop. Other impulses are ideas that suddenly come to mind when least expected, often during moments of boredom. Nowadays, we are rarely bored because, as soon as we experience it, we reach for our phones and seek another dose of stimulation. Yet, for me, boredom is where ideas often emerge. The mind finds its own ways to entertain itself, and it is in these moments that internal and external experiences merge, transforming into fiction.

il-lokal: When you're in the studio, do you have routines or rituals that help you get into a creative mindset? 

Ryan: No matter the size of my studio, I always end up cramming myself into a corner and painting there. I have always kept a messy studio; I rarely tidy up. When I enter the studio, it feels as if I never really stopped, only paused, and the energy from the previous session immediately flows back. I paint daily, and I need that time alone, it grounds me. I usually keep films playing in the background while I work, as they help me focus. Writing is more sporadic, but I keep everything organised digitally so that I can access my work from anywhere. These days, I mostly type, as it feels more natural than handwriting, aside from the fact that my handwriting is extremely messy. I also have a ritual of writing while travelling long distances, whether on planes or trains.

il-lokal: You describe a rather structured routine. Does that routine give you more freedom to experiment?

Ryan: In my studio practice, I usually work in series, so there is often a certain degree of direction from the beginning. For example, when working within the Plants and Gardens series, I generally have a clear direction. However, with abstract painting, it becomes a completely different process. There, uncertainty plays a much larger role. The work develops through intuition, material exploration, and a dialogue between intention and accident. With writing, it depends on the project. Sometimes I begin with a clear structure or plot in mind, while at other times I allow myself to explore different alleys and avenues along the way. I enjoy this balance between control and uncertainty, savouring the moments where the work begins to reveal possibilities that I could not have anticipated at the start.

il-lokal: For someone discovering your work for the first time through this English edition, what would you hope they take away from it?

Ryan: I would hope they encounter a story that, while rooted in a very specific place and moment, speaks to experiences that are universal. SAJF is deeply connected to Malta, the landscape, the heat, the language, the social rituals, and the contradictions of island life. At its core it is a story about desire, uncertainty, identity, and the search for meaning. 

At the same time, there is a sense of curiosity and uncertainty. A translation is not simply a change of language. It is a new encounter between the work and the reader. The characters, emotions, and themes may resonate differently depending on the cultural context of the audience. I am looking forward to discovering how readers unfamiliar with Malta will interpret the world of You Know the Sun Bothers Me and what elements they will find familiar within it.

il-lokal: What's next? Are you finding yourself drawn back to painting, another novel, or something entirely unexpected?

Ryan: I am currently painting at my own pace, mainly focusing on summery garden scenes. I also have a collection of short stories coming out shortly, alongside a new novel that is currently in progress. 

*** 

Available on il-lokal.com: 
You Know the Sun Bother Me
SAJF

Interview: MJ Tolu
Photography: MJ Tolu / il-lokal / BDL Malta