An eclectic range of topics will be in focus at the world’s biggest book fair, which opens today, from a row over an Italian mafia author to growing interest in wacky literary subgenres and artificial intelligence in publishing.
The Frankfurt Book Fair brings together authors, publishers and other industry players over five days in the western German city.
Big names include Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari, best known for Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, US writer Anne Applebaum and British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.
Photo: AFP
However, the run-up has been marred by a row in Italy, this year’s “guest of honor,” an annual tradition intended to shine a spotlight on a partner country’s literary scene.
Fury erupted after the initial official selection put forward by the Italians did not include Roberto Saviano, author of mafia bestseller Gomorrah, who was convicted and fined last year for defaming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Following the move, Saviano lashed out on social media at what he branded the “most ignorant government in the history of Italy.”
In the end he is coming to the fair anyway, but at the invitation of his German publisher.
Critics say it is further evidence of a worsening climate for freedom of expression in Italy, with 41 authors writing an open letter in response that complained of “increasingly suffocating political interference in cultural spaces.”
The Italian Publishers Association insisted that it would never allow any kind of “outside interference” in the program, called “Roots in the future.”
The fair is no stranger to controversy — last year, several publishers from Muslim-majority countries withdrew in protest at organizers’ strong support for Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the Gaza war.
Fair director Juergen Boos insisted it was right to maintain Italy as guest of honor, despite the controversy.
“I think to showcase what’s happening in Italy’s culture right now, in Italy’s politics, it is very important,” he said.
There is much more going on besides the controversy surrounding Italy — the world’s biggest publishing trade event this year welcomes about 1,000 authors and other speakers at some 650 events on 15 stages.
A large area is dedicated to “new adult” literature, which encompasses a weird and outlandish range of sub-genres beloved of younger readers, such as “Romantasy” and “Dark College.”
These genres have been rapidly growing in popularity, often boosted by exposure through social media trend BookTok on the TikTok platform, where authors promote their work and readers post reviews.
Artificial intelligence will also be a major topic, with talks and panel discussions dedicated to the subject, as fears mount in the industry about poor-quality, computer-written books flooding the market and potential copyright violations. Leading authors, including John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, have in recent times taken legal action against OpenAI, alleging the company unlawfully used their works to train its popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Still it is not all doom and gloom. There are hopes that AI can improve efficiency for publishers and also that it could be beneficial in some areas, such as scientific and research publishing.
“On the one side it’s beneficial for the workflows in the publishing houses,” Boos said. “On the other hand, regarding copyright, it’s a big mess.”
An annual highlight is the awarding of the prestigious “Peace of the German Book Trade,” which this year goes to Applebaum, an American-Polish journalist and historian whose latest book Autocracy Inc examines the growing links between authoritarian states.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS