Books » Knjige | 25 Sajamknjiga, koji prošle godine nije održan zbog epidemije, ove godine će biti u svomuobičajenom terminu od 24. do 31. oktobra, naravno, ukoliko ga pandemija ponovo ne odloži The Book Fair, which wasn’t held last year due to the epidemic, will be back in its usual slot this year, from 24th to 31st October, that is of course unless the pandemic postpones it again Walking through “streets” of Borislav Pekić and Ivo Andrić, and then the wreath of Miloš Crnjanski and Danilo Kiš, in the central hall of the fair, means encountering almost all the more important people of the pen in a country where plenty is written and read. That’s because the magic of touching a favourite writer still works at the Belgrade Book Fair. Stand in line and spend hours waiting for your copy to be signed by the one you grew up with, whose words you underlined and trusted more than your own… The purists know how to complain, particularly in recent years, that the biggest crowd is around “easy” writers, but readers don't care about that at all because greats of domestic literature are also there. The Book Fair is a place for encounters between friends, readers and writers, publishers and some up & coming future writers, but also a place for which almost the entire literary production throughout the year is published. Ninety per cent of newdomestic and translated titles are intentionally prepared to be ready for October, just in time for the Belgrade Book Fair. Publishing companies are founded, built up, expanded and then disappear, but the Book Fair doesn’t capitulate, because it’s kept alive by the book. Founded in1955, based on themodel of the Frankfurt Book Fair, our Belgrade version very quickly closed the gap on the fair that inspired it, succeeding in remaining the most important such event in the Balkans for decades. It has been given a nice spice in recent years with the inclusion of guest of honour countries, which are allocated a large area to present their own literature. That honour for this year will belong to Romania. I NT E RNAT I ONA L B E LGR ADE BOOK FA I R Return of the writtenword We love FEST and are proud of BITEF, but the most common question every year in the last week of October is - when are you going to the Book Fair? FOTO: Depositphotos / Goran Vrhovac FOTO: Profomedia.rs / Nemanja Cabric/ Alamy
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