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London Book Fair Puts Focus on Arab World

by Zoe Strimpel
Tue, 15 Apr 2008

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This is the biggest London Book Fair to date, and has proved as intense a literary whitewash as ever. Salman Rushdie, Sebastian Faulks, and the superb Egyptian author of "The Yacoubian Building," Alaa Al Aswany, are all speakers. There is also a heavier-than-normal American influence. Oprah's chef, Art Smith, will be holding court tomorrow, and Andrew Wylie is on show with Philip Roth's new novel, "Indignation." Another 10 or so other American agents, including Trident and ICM (with Toni Morrison's new book, "A Mercy"), are present as well.

But the "market focus" of this year's book fair is the Arab world, an interesting choice considering that this sector seems relatively dry when it comes to many kinds of books, especially fiction (an obvious exception being Egypt, which has given the world both Mr. Aswany and the late Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz). The aim is to "strengthen cultural relations with the Arab World, educate the global publishing industry about Arab literature and allow the Arab publishers to promote their books and literature to all parts of the world via the fair." Arab publishers, authors, and translators are exhibiting alongside talks on trends in contemporary Arab literature.

Last year's market focus was Spain. The Arab world is quite a leap, but such a challenging (or, at any rate, broad) market focus is only fitting for a fair that is itself massive, sprawling, colorful, and ambitious — reputedly more so than ever.

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