You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair opened yesterday (24th April) with an appearance from ex-US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Now in its 29th edition, the fair features 1,000 exhibitors from 50 companies and around 500,000 books this year. The start of the seven-day event was marked by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose entrance with his entourage caused a flurry of activity and a mob of people attempting to take pictures.
A large swathe of the fair was given over to guest of honour India this year while other, smaller, areas featured books from China, Germany, Poland and even DC superhero Aquaman.
On stage, British children’s writer Ali Sparkes spoke to local youngsters as an interpreter translated her words, while Penguin-published Oxford University historian Eugene Rogan was quizzed about the region’s future. But it was the appearance of Kerry, author of Every Day is Extra (Simon and Schuster), that pulled the biggest crowd with the veteran senator holding forth on America’s war record and Donald Trump’s White House reign.
The event followed Tuesday evening’s announcement that Lebanese writer Hoda Barakat had won the $50,000 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Barakat’s novel The Night Mail (Dar al-Adab) is set to be released by Oneworld in the UK next year and she told an audience at the fair its publication may be brought forward. She appeared along with the other shortlisted writers at the Al Mutaqa Book Club venue to discuss their works before taking to the stage twice more on the opening day.
Big names from the UK were absent from the fair, though a handful of booksellers had made the trip. Near the centre were a clutch of antiquarian dealers from London selling rare books at prices of up to 1.2m DEA (£250,000) to wealthy visitors.
“There’s a growing interest in rare books in the region”, said Ben Houston of Peter Harrington. “With the Louvre museum being out here now obviously there’s a lot of investment in culture. We’ve been coming here for four or five years now and it’s a great fair. I think there are more rare book dealers from Europe here this year than there has been before.”
George Lekkas, an account executive for UK-based English language teaching outfit Express Publishing, said parents and schools in Abu Dhabi were keen to pick up new titles and their children innovative books and “nothing too traditional”. “It seems to be more organised here this year,” he said. “Things have been running very smoothly so far.”
English books were in evidence elsewhere at the conference centre, mainly aimed at children wanting to learn the language. Like everywhere else, Juliet Donaldson and Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series were big sellers according to exhibitors, with little sign of David Walliams sweeping the UAE market yet.
The fair runs until 30th April at the Abu Dhabi National Conference Centre. Other guests set to appear include Ben Okri, A long Way Home author Saroo Brierley (Penguin) and Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Nobel laureate Malala.