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The Maltese Version: A Novel
A charged, delightfully offbeat novel of four women forging their way across time, place, and language in search of desire, power, and connection.
One day they were in love and the next, a manuscript appeared in his study, written in a language she didn’t speak.
Leonie and Max are on separate but tangled paths. Now, she might be pregnant. And he’s not answering her texts, off translating poetry from a language he seems barely to know.
Ana, the poet, moves through the house her father filled with his paintings, the house where her mother struggled to survive. Ana guards her poems closely. Can she let this foreign man take her words, her art, into his tongue? Does every partnership require some form of surrender?
Then Max blinks off the map, and Leonie asks Rhoda—an expert travel writer—to track him down in Malta, where a sun-baked wildness undermines Rhoda’s sense of reality. What kind of caper is unfolding? And what will Rhoda do with this new version of herself?
Charged and mischievous, Katy Simpson Smith’s The Maltese Version upends the stability of language, desire, and the ways we make meaning.
One day they were in love and the next, a manuscript appeared in his study, written in a language she didn’t speak.
Leonie and Max are on separate but tangled paths. Now, she might be pregnant. And he’s not answering her texts, off translating poetry from a language he seems barely to know.
Ana, the poet, moves through the house her father filled with his paintings, the house where her mother struggled to survive. Ana guards her poems closely. Can she let this foreign man take her words, her art, into his tongue? Does every partnership require some form of surrender?
Then Max blinks off the map, and Leonie asks Rhoda—an expert travel writer—to track him down in Malta, where a sun-baked wildness undermines Rhoda’s sense of reality. What kind of caper is unfolding? And what will Rhoda do with this new version of herself?
Charged and mischievous, Katy Simpson Smith’s The Maltese Version upends the stability of language, desire, and the ways we make meaning.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 18, 2026
About the author
Katy Simpson Smith
10 books185 followersKaty Simpson Smith attended Mount Holyoke College and received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She has been working as an Adjunct Professor at Tulane University and is the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835. Her debut novel, The Story of Land and Sea, was published by Harper in August 2014. She lives in New Orleans.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 20, 2026
Solid farce that has a lot to say about relationships, literature in translation, understanding each other, and throws in a mild farce and complication in the form of a possible pregnancy, while also being slightly meta in parodying genres based on which seciton the novel is in. Interesting work of craft, and definitely worth your time.
September 12, 2026
Katy Simpson Smith's "The Maltese Version" is full of characters I just could not like. There is Leonie, a limp young woman who does not appear to know who she is or what she wants from life. Max, Leonie's more or less live-in lover, is outwardly respectable and talented and inwardly a cheater and another person who has apparently not found himself yet. Ana, a poet famous on tiny Malta and who's poems are written in the Maltese language, which few outside of Malta understand, is queenly, but unreliable. Rhoda, Leonie's friend, is the only one with any spirit or ambition in life. And finally, there is Herschel, who seems to be Max's agent and abruptly packs him off to Malta to translate Ana's poems into an English volume. Here is the description of the main characters from the review in the Clarion-Ledger / Hattiesburg American Mississippi Books page (https://msbookspage.wordpress.com/202...
"Leonie is a travel writer and Max is a translator who gets his work assignments from Herschel, his slightly mysterious former translation professor. Rhoda, Leonie’s friend and travel writing coworker, offers a bit of no nonsense reality to Leonie’s slightly dreamy and chaotic aura. The windows around Leonie are always a little smudged; Rhoda wipes them clean."
The Maltese person whose work is to be translated by Max is Ana. She is a poet who is not yet famous outside of Malta, but because she needs money to support her crumbling house, she agrees to be translated into English in hopes of increasing her book sales. But after a couple of weeks, she finds that she just cannot get along with Max, who she sees as offensively male and fears that his translation will give him too much ownership of her precious poems. Max, on the other hand, is all but Ana's captive. Ana insists on Max surrendering his cell phone to her when he arrives, so he never bothers to contact Leonie to indicate he is alive and well. And despite his four-year relationship with Leonie, Max immediately seeks a love affair with Ana, which just makes matters worse in Ana's view. In Max's absence, Leonie discovers that she is pregnant, but she can't reach Max to tell him, which just makes her even more upset about his radio silence. So, Leonie convinces Rhoda to get their editor to send her to Malta, ostensibly to develop a new guidebook to Malta but in reality so that Rhoda can track Max down.
If this plot sounds a bit chaotic, it is. The review in the Southern Review of Books (https://southernreviewofbooks.com/202...) wraps up as follows: "I found the conclusion to Leonie and Max’s story somewhat deflating. The novel constantly revolves around ideas of dependence and independence, stasis and change, the definite and the vague. In the end, we are still circling those poles, following a boyfriend and girlfriend who seem unwilling to let their relationship grow up." I have to agree. Another review noted that this novel might appeal most to Millennial readers. Perhaps I am just too far from that generation to get it.
September 3, 2026
I don’t know why I bought a book about translating poetry. It’s dull confusing and infuriating all at once.
October 27, 2026
This novel has many side twists and characters. The plot seems to center around Max, a translator and a professor, and his girlfriend, Leonie. Max gets a contract to translate the poems of Ana, a Maltese poet, even though, he does not know Maltese very well. When he gets to Malta, his phone is taken from him and he can't tell Leonie he has arrived. He and Ana work on her poems and get involved romantically, too. I was confused in the beginning with all the characters; in the middle, things started to make sense and come together; but then in the end, it all became confusing again.
October 11, 2026
How Stella Got Her Groove back, except postmodern and Maltese. So, like, How The Groove Got Back Xstejjla.
September 19, 2026
Boring
Just a lot of sex and a lot of charachters. Never translated the Maltese phrases so it was hard to figure out
Just a lot of sex and a lot of charachters. Never translated the Maltese phrases so it was hard to figure out
September 8, 2026
“They were two adults on two paths, pretending it was one.”
“Her mother had told her the only surety in the world was from the Bible, and The Associated Press.”
There are plenty of great lines in this novel, many on the borders of communication between languages. Like “Possession,” this is about literary detection and also about love.
The delicious subtleties between Maltese and Italian and the diamond cutting to achieve its best version into English. How to preserve the passion, the meter if possible and the meaning? How assiduously are you yoked to the word by word meaning?
The ingredients: One couple - a freelance travel writer and a translator/teacher - comfortable in Chicago. The possibility of a baby. The man, with a commission to go to Malta to translate a poet there. Radio silence from him after he landed.
And the detective part.
“Her mother had told her the only surety in the world was from the Bible, and The Associated Press.”
There are plenty of great lines in this novel, many on the borders of communication between languages. Like “Possession,” this is about literary detection and also about love.
The delicious subtleties between Maltese and Italian and the diamond cutting to achieve its best version into English. How to preserve the passion, the meter if possible and the meaning? How assiduously are you yoked to the word by word meaning?
The ingredients: One couple - a freelance travel writer and a translator/teacher - comfortable in Chicago. The possibility of a baby. The man, with a commission to go to Malta to translate a poet there. Radio silence from him after he landed.
And the detective part.
October 2, 2026
The first half was engaging, but the second was slow and completely lost my interest.
October 19, 2026
"I used to have demons in my room at night
Desire, despair, desire
So many monsters
No more 'I love you's'
The language is leaving me in silence
Changes are shifting outside the word"
- from Annie Lennox 1995 cover of David Freeman song inspired by Roland Barthes
This is a complex story with a large, confusing cast of poets, translators, lovers and those who support them. Key figures struggle to say what they mean, get what they want, and ponder the relationship between the two. They move slowly from language to language and partner to partner, seeking to turn indecision into action, yearning into having. Mysteries of kinship, creation (of life and art), and provenance simmer throughout.
I worried when I had trouble keeping the cast straight, resorting to a cheat sheet:
Ana - poet; Max - translator; Rhoda - travel writer; Herschel - teacher of and agent for translation; Manwell - artist. Plus partners, parents, children, hired help, all of whom turn out to be crucial players.
I worried more when I realized that this story about translation would increase in complexity rather than clarity, since Herschel, who sets it all in motion, has learned that "translation only works if it's messy" (66). She knows "translation must be an act of love," and thus prepares us for messiness that is interpersonal as well as interlingual. And ultimately the latter is only a metaphor for the former. ". . . translation was the act of turning one work of art into two . . . But the two versions had to be lovers; fundamentally, they had to understand each other" (211). One experienced couple has figured out being in a successful relationship does not mean "figuring out how to be half of a whole;" instead "being partners required no halves at all, but two wholes" (194). That means "you have to keep making yourself, day after day, same as you have to keep making your bed" (210).
The most interesting characters in the story are women, who ponder different kinds of creativity that consume them - works that grow within their bodies vs. works crafted to be sold (221): "We love, or we bear children, or we write. There is no survival without compromising, passing on, transferring one language to another. We love, and we bear children, and we write" (243). One probes her desire to write: "Did a writer first have the desire to speak, or the knowledge of what to say?" (267). Others continue to compare authoring with translating: "We create . . . to be our own god. . . . We translate, I guess, . . . to express faith" (283).
Desire, despair, desire
So many monsters
No more 'I love you's'
The language is leaving me in silence
Changes are shifting outside the word"
- from Annie Lennox 1995 cover of David Freeman song inspired by Roland Barthes
This is a complex story with a large, confusing cast of poets, translators, lovers and those who support them. Key figures struggle to say what they mean, get what they want, and ponder the relationship between the two. They move slowly from language to language and partner to partner, seeking to turn indecision into action, yearning into having. Mysteries of kinship, creation (of life and art), and provenance simmer throughout.
I worried when I had trouble keeping the cast straight, resorting to a cheat sheet:
Ana - poet; Max - translator; Rhoda - travel writer; Herschel - teacher of and agent for translation; Manwell - artist. Plus partners, parents, children, hired help, all of whom turn out to be crucial players.
I worried more when I realized that this story about translation would increase in complexity rather than clarity, since Herschel, who sets it all in motion, has learned that "translation only works if it's messy" (66). She knows "translation must be an act of love," and thus prepares us for messiness that is interpersonal as well as interlingual. And ultimately the latter is only a metaphor for the former. ". . . translation was the act of turning one work of art into two . . . But the two versions had to be lovers; fundamentally, they had to understand each other" (211). One experienced couple has figured out being in a successful relationship does not mean "figuring out how to be half of a whole;" instead "being partners required no halves at all, but two wholes" (194). That means "you have to keep making yourself, day after day, same as you have to keep making your bed" (210).
The most interesting characters in the story are women, who ponder different kinds of creativity that consume them - works that grow within their bodies vs. works crafted to be sold (221): "We love, or we bear children, or we write. There is no survival without compromising, passing on, transferring one language to another. We love, and we bear children, and we write" (243). One probes her desire to write: "Did a writer first have the desire to speak, or the knowledge of what to say?" (267). Others continue to compare authoring with translating: "We create . . . to be our own god. . . . We translate, I guess, . . . to express faith" (283).
September 23, 2026
3.5 Stars
An interesting feminist lens, but the blurb is not on point.
The Maltese Version from a feminist angle, is doing some cool things. It hooks you with what looks like a classic mystery setup: Max goes to Malta to translate a viral local poet, completely ghosts his potentially pregnant partner, Leonie, and "blinks off the map." Leonie sends her capable friend Rhoda to find him.
But here’s the twist: Max isn’t actually missing or in danger. He’s just a typical, self-absorbed guy who gave his phone to the poet, Ana, because she insisted he disconnect to focus on her work. He literally just didn’t care to text.
The book is at its best when it shines a light on this dynamic and focuses on the women left dealing with his wake. The relationship between Max and Ana is a metaphor for power and patriarchal ownership: can a foreign guy translate female rage and eroticism without totally ruining it? Through generations of women, including Ana’s mother and her housemaid, the book does a deep dive into the silent domestic compromises women are always expected to make while men pace through their own artistic crises.
While the thematic bits about language and patriarchy are fascinating, the plot veers off into the odd (murder mystery part). The final resolution felt less like a triumphant FU of old relationship loops and more like a quiet fade-out.
It's a smart stimulating read with fantastic feminist commentary, but the odd execution might test your patience.
An interesting feminist lens, but the blurb is not on point.
The Maltese Version from a feminist angle, is doing some cool things. It hooks you with what looks like a classic mystery setup: Max goes to Malta to translate a viral local poet, completely ghosts his potentially pregnant partner, Leonie, and "blinks off the map." Leonie sends her capable friend Rhoda to find him.
But here’s the twist: Max isn’t actually missing or in danger. He’s just a typical, self-absorbed guy who gave his phone to the poet, Ana, because she insisted he disconnect to focus on her work. He literally just didn’t care to text.
The book is at its best when it shines a light on this dynamic and focuses on the women left dealing with his wake. The relationship between Max and Ana is a metaphor for power and patriarchal ownership: can a foreign guy translate female rage and eroticism without totally ruining it? Through generations of women, including Ana’s mother and her housemaid, the book does a deep dive into the silent domestic compromises women are always expected to make while men pace through their own artistic crises.
While the thematic bits about language and patriarchy are fascinating, the plot veers off into the odd (murder mystery part). The final resolution felt less like a triumphant FU of old relationship loops and more like a quiet fade-out.
It's a smart stimulating read with fantastic feminist commentary, but the odd execution might test your patience.
September 19, 2026
"But she, like all good hipsters, was just a cog in a machine that churned out facades."
"But love isn't arriving at the same clearing in the forest. It's shouting to each other through the streets."
"Why do we want what makes us feel dirty?"
"A bird on the page means nothing without its signified body on a branch. Love cannot live in the mind without taking shape in the mouth."
"I grew stagnant, having looked for love outside of myself."
Such a different and complex novel that I grew to love. A bit messy and chaotic in the beginning, following all the characters and time jumps, but I slowly moved into the rhythm of the words and story. The reader meets various characters, Leonie, a travel writer, her colleague, Rhoda, and her partner, Max who translates literature/poetry. He travels to Malta to meet with Ana, a famous Maltese poet on a remote island, in need of a translator, so we think. The story then takes many directions. We learn about love, what it is, and what it means. And we learn of translation, about writing and what it can do for a person and the reader.
I did not think about translating this much before, and it awoke some creative creature inside. Katy Simpson Smith truly crafted a tale unlike any other. Enjoyable, beautiful, awakening.
"But love isn't arriving at the same clearing in the forest. It's shouting to each other through the streets."
"Why do we want what makes us feel dirty?"
"A bird on the page means nothing without its signified body on a branch. Love cannot live in the mind without taking shape in the mouth."
"I grew stagnant, having looked for love outside of myself."
Such a different and complex novel that I grew to love. A bit messy and chaotic in the beginning, following all the characters and time jumps, but I slowly moved into the rhythm of the words and story. The reader meets various characters, Leonie, a travel writer, her colleague, Rhoda, and her partner, Max who translates literature/poetry. He travels to Malta to meet with Ana, a famous Maltese poet on a remote island, in need of a translator, so we think. The story then takes many directions. We learn about love, what it is, and what it means. And we learn of translation, about writing and what it can do for a person and the reader.
I did not think about translating this much before, and it awoke some creative creature inside. Katy Simpson Smith truly crafted a tale unlike any other. Enjoyable, beautiful, awakening.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The more time passes since I read this one, the more I find myself thinking about it.
The Maltese Version was my first Katy Simpson Smith’s novel but it definitely won’t be the last.
Character driven books, morally ambiguous characters and well done miscommunication are forever my favorite things in literary fiction and this one was full of all of these.
One of the things that’s always important to me is feeling a connection to the characters, which I did, but I cannot say it was a very strong one. However, the entire book had me so addicted I didn’t even care.
The writing was truly gorgeous, however it was at times slightly difficult to get through.
All I all while I had some issues, this was still a beautifully written novel with incredibly complex characters and the author did an amazing job at showing us the complicated relationships between them!!
If you love literary fiction, complex characters and character dynamics—you’ll absolutely love this one!
Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
The Maltese Version was my first Katy Simpson Smith’s novel but it definitely won’t be the last.
Character driven books, morally ambiguous characters and well done miscommunication are forever my favorite things in literary fiction and this one was full of all of these.
One of the things that’s always important to me is feeling a connection to the characters, which I did, but I cannot say it was a very strong one. However, the entire book had me so addicted I didn’t even care.
The writing was truly gorgeous, however it was at times slightly difficult to get through.
All I all while I had some issues, this was still a beautifully written novel with incredibly complex characters and the author did an amazing job at showing us the complicated relationships between them!!
If you love literary fiction, complex characters and character dynamics—you’ll absolutely love this one!
Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
October 23, 2026
The Maltese Version by Katy Simpson Smith is a smart, atmospheric read that plays with the mystery genre rather than following its standard formula.
The setup hooks you right away. Max vanishes after obsessing over a strange manuscript, leaving Leonie to hire a travel writer named Rhoda to track him down across Malta. The setting does a lot of heavy lifting. Smith captures the sun-baked limestone, sea air, and narrow alleys with incredible texture, using the landscape to mirror how slippery and unsettled the characters feel.
At its core, this isn't a conventional, beat-by-beat thriller. It’s an exploration of language and translation used as an effective metaphor for human relationships: how much gets lost, reinterpreted, or simply invented when people try to understand each other. The multiple perspectives give it depth, though anyone expecting a tidy, fast-paced procedural might find the reflective pacing and open-ended focus a bit polarizing.
Well-written, layered, and worth picking up if you appreciate character-driven literary fiction that values place and mood over easy answers.
The setup hooks you right away. Max vanishes after obsessing over a strange manuscript, leaving Leonie to hire a travel writer named Rhoda to track him down across Malta. The setting does a lot of heavy lifting. Smith captures the sun-baked limestone, sea air, and narrow alleys with incredible texture, using the landscape to mirror how slippery and unsettled the characters feel.
At its core, this isn't a conventional, beat-by-beat thriller. It’s an exploration of language and translation used as an effective metaphor for human relationships: how much gets lost, reinterpreted, or simply invented when people try to understand each other. The multiple perspectives give it depth, though anyone expecting a tidy, fast-paced procedural might find the reflective pacing and open-ended focus a bit polarizing.
Well-written, layered, and worth picking up if you appreciate character-driven literary fiction that values place and mood over easy answers.
November 1, 2026
This was so odd. It was so melodramatic (derogatory) with characters intentionally not talking to each other about how they feel and melting down over the other person not understanding how they feel even though they didn’t say; it was so melodramatic (complimentary) that Leonie freaked out about Max’s lack of response and convinced her coworker to travel to another country to track him down and that was unbelievably entertaining. They turn translation into complete agony, and make it feel so serious. I guess to some it really is that serious, but it was dialed up to extremes. I also find Herschel’s character to still be such a big question mark looming over the story, why did she push so hard to get Max and Ana together. What could POSSIBLY have been the motivation for that?
They lost me a bit with the dual timeline where you’re unsure if a murder has happened or not, and also with the extended well metaphor, but overall I thought this was beautifully written. The way the author writes such depth into the simplest sentence is astounding, for example:
“A place could only hold one body, and just barely. Where would a lover, with her own soup ladle fit? Could a one-bedroom hold two soup ladles? No. Absurdity.” (Pg 42)
“What was more sacred, a life or his life?” (Pg 80)
“But he said nothing. It was all behind his eyes. Daughters could read eyes.” (Pg 205)
I also loved the ending, where the sketch ended up framed with Ana’s poem facing out. What a slap in the face to Manwel, and how deserved!
They lost me a bit with the dual timeline where you’re unsure if a murder has happened or not, and also with the extended well metaphor, but overall I thought this was beautifully written. The way the author writes such depth into the simplest sentence is astounding, for example:
“A place could only hold one body, and just barely. Where would a lover, with her own soup ladle fit? Could a one-bedroom hold two soup ladles? No. Absurdity.” (Pg 42)
“What was more sacred, a life or his life?” (Pg 80)
“But he said nothing. It was all behind his eyes. Daughters could read eyes.” (Pg 205)
I also loved the ending, where the sketch ended up framed with Ana’s poem facing out. What a slap in the face to Manwel, and how deserved!
November 2, 2026
I found this book to be incredibly trite and peppered with inaccuracies about Malta and the Maltese. As a Maltese woman, I initially appreciated that the author chose Malta as a backdrop to the novel, and particularly that she established the poem 'Il-Kantilena' as central to the plot - however, my optimism quickly soured after I read inaccuracy after inaccuracy about the islands and in how the central Maltese and Gozitan characters were portrayed, which kept me from enjoying the novel (and were, in my opinion, borderline disrespectful - these should have been checked and amended ahead of publishing). Disappointing - I expected better.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Katy Simpson Smith isn't an author I was familiar with but after reading The Maltese Version I'd be interested to track down some of her earlier books. Anyone with an interest in the intricacies of literary translation will find much to enjoy here. Malta and Gozo and the culture and landscape of these Mediterranean islands are fascinating backdrops to this original and intriguing mystery
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an advance review copy.
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an advance review copy.
September 19, 2026
Im not quite sure what I thought of this one. It is definitely well written however I never truly connected to any of the characters. I thought the premise was interesting and I loved exploring the question of who really owns words once they are written. Is a translator an artist in their own right. Is it a theft or a collaboration? I found this part fascinating, however I had trouble staying focused
at times.
at times.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I am a Katy Simpson Smith superfan, so whatever she writes, I’m going to eat up with a spoon. But this one, while different than her other books, is exactly like her other books: smart, intense, literary, stunning. It’s also accessible, sometimes funny, and better than the last book you read.
October 4, 2026
Another beautiful work by Katy Simpson Smith! It was so fun to explore the minds of all these different characters, and watch them grapple with conflicting feelings on love and art and life, and to see how their stories intertwine.
October 19, 2026
A kind of fever dream about the nature of love, writing, poetry, trust and finding one’s true self. It read like a modern day Shakespearean comedy. First time I’ve ever read a novel set, even partly, on Gozo. I’d have liked to see the paintings and sketches. I used to know someone who knew someone else etc. who cleaned for Picasso and deeply regretted not stealing stuff from the waste paper basket…
September 2, 2026
Interesting. It was well written.
September 17, 2026
hmm. despite having various elements i did not get or like (especially towards the end), i quite liked it.
Did Not Finish
September 17, 2026I fell asleep on a plane to this, and when I woke up, I realized I didn’t care enough to go back and figure out what I missed
October 14, 2026
listened to audiobook
November 3, 2026
3/5 —
Melodrama fused with reality in a way I didn’t like after a while.
Melodrama fused with reality in a way I didn’t like after a while.
November 3, 2026
Audiobook: i just couldn’t connect with the story line. Seemed to jump around too much.
November 7, 2026
Holy FUCK this book is more beautiful than rubies. It is a terrible and gorgeous carbuncle. It has ripped me apart and I’m being put back together
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews