In Hall 5 of the Book Fair in Frankfurt, there are empty stands and stacked chairs on the floor marked as “Arab World” on the trade fair plan. Not all publishers and Arab and Muslim associations have defected – there is a stand for a program to support publishers from Saudi Arabia, for example – but several exhibitors only have their name tags left. The protest against the suspension of the award to the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli, who on Tuesday the 18th withdrew the only interview granted to the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” shortly before the editorial deadline, continues to have consequences, including through the harsh stance The philosopher’s attack on the Slovenian Slavoj Žižek, who described the decision at the opening ceremony as “scandalous”. On Tuesday, New York Times columnist Pamela Paul reconstructed the story, citing an exchange with the Palestinian writer: “She told me that she was aware of the impact of the actions of Litprom (the prize’s organizer, ed.) and the Book fair and what they reflect in terms of political changes. “It is alarming to see how this populism is trying to take over literature,” he wrote to me in an email. “But literature cannot be in the hands of a single group, not if it creates an intimate bond with every reader.”
Mauro Mazza, Extraordinary Commissioner for Italy’s host country in 2024, also commented on the case when pressed by journalists: “I have thought about it and I think I agree with the decision to postpone the awards ceremony to a more appropriate time so that it can take place .” is not just a cause for conflict, anger and resentment. A painful but wise decision.” This happened on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Space, which hosts 67 publishers at the common stand (137 in total), where the AIE (Italian Publishers Association) presented on Tuesday the annual report on the publishing sector 2023 in a meeting opened by the Italian ambassador presented Armando Varricchio in Germany. Data that, said the Vice President of the IEA Renata Gorgani, demonstrates the positive trend after the pandemic (in 2023 sales grow by 0.2%, compared to a decrease in copies sold by 1.5%, which is a sign of a slight increase). Cover price) and confirm Italy as the fourth largest European publishing industry, so that an initial very conservative estimate for the 2023 annual financial statements predicts a growth range of between 1 and 2%.
“The data is positive, we are not asking for bailouts, but we are a sector worth 3.4 billion per year that wants to grow,” said the new president of the AIE Innocenzo Cipolletta, underlining the need for an industrial policy also for culture happens through internationalization and promotion of innovation.
If the data on reading speaks of 71 percent of Italians having read at least one book per year, the most interesting element comes from the breakdown by demographic base, where it can be seen that 96 percent of young people between 15 and 24 years old read . Years. “This means that the Italian publisher was able to respond to the wishes of this audience,” comments Gorgani. They were the ones who pushed the comics and manga sector forward, which was the great revelation of recent times. Compared to four years ago, the genre has tripled (+200%), although it suffered a slight decline in the first half of 2023 from 7.5% last year to 6.5% currently. But it is always an average young audience that has driven the growth of romance novels and especially Italian romance novels, a phenomenon that is part of a broader reorganization of genres that has been underway for years. Our authors are also popular abroad and in fact Sperling & Kupfer announced at the book fair that the first three volumes of the Kiss me like you love me saga by Kira Shell, an Italian bestselling author who writes under a pseudonym, had been sold the American brand Sourcebooks.
In general, the sale of translation rights of Italian works abroad in 2022 is close to 8,000 titles (the government, together with the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs, provides one million euros annually to support translation) and here too it is above the entire one Children’s area is the driving force. Italians are particularly popular in Spain, France and, surprisingly, Poland. Among the bestsellers in the first days of the fair was Paolo Cognetti’s new book “Down in the Valley”, published by Einaudi on Tuesday October 24th and has already been acquired in 20 countries by the Malatesta agency, while Mondadori has announced that it will be released on March 6th. simultaneously worldwide, the unpublished novel by Gabriel García Márquez, See you in August.