Participants of the 44th Buenos Aires International Book Fair in 2019.David Fernández
The capital of Argentina returns after a two-year absence to celebrate its big book festival. This Thursday, the doors of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair (FIL) reopen to inaugurate its 46th edition, which will last until May 16th. With Havana as the guest city and writer Guillermo Saccomanno in charge of the opening speech, Argentina’s most important literary event is preparing to attract thousands of readers and try to revitalize a sector badly hit by the economic crisis and the pandemic. At its last edition in 2019, it had more than a million visitors.
The Covid-19, which forced the suspension of the in-person fair in 2020 and 2021, gave the organizers a last-minute scare: the main international star, Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, was hospitalized last week after contracting the virus, but he has already been released and his trip to Buenos Aires has been confirmed. At the FIL he presents The Still Gaze, an essay on Benito Pérez Galdós.
In addition to Vargas Llosa, the international guests include the Spaniards Javier Cercas, Marta Sanz and Irene Solá; the American John Katzenbach; Chile’s Diamela Eltit and Alejandra Costamagna; Peruvians Katya Adaui and Diego Trelles Paz; Colombian Carolina Sanín and Brazilian Camila do Valle.
A “Firmodrome”
In this issue, the journalist Ezequiel Martínez makes his debut as Director General and predicts an “unforgettable” FIL with almost 1,500 planned activities and some novelties. The latter includes the installation of a Firmodrome, which is where readers who want to get an autograph – or a selfie – with their favorite authors should go.
The fair will also commemorate some authors who have passed away in the past two years. The most emblematic is the cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, Quino, who died in September 2020. In the first edition without the creator of Mafalda, Ediciones La Flor dedicates its stand to him and organizes an exhibition in his memory. The Spaniard Almudena Grandes, who died on November 27 at the age of 61, is also remembered. The poet and director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, will participate in a tribute to the author of The Frozen Heart, who was his partner for two decades. This year 2022 also marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Manuel Puig and among the planned events there is a performance by the artist Flavia Da Rin.
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In the editorial production, the numerous innovations related to the Malvinas War, which is 40 years old this year, stand out. Journalist Felipe Celesia signs the investigation Disembarco en las Georgias. The truth about the mysterious incident that started the war for the Malvinas Islands (Paidós) and her colleague Agustina López bring together testimonies from war veterans from both countries and relatives in Darwin, a story from Malvinas (Galerna). In Listening to Malvinas (Gourmet Musical), Esteban Buch and Abel Gilbert write lyrics to the music that accompanied society during and after the war. War continues to fuel fiction, as in the phantasmagorical sheep, the novel by Sebastián Ávila that won the latest Futurock prize.
The Critics Award, which the El Libro Foundation gives to the best Argentine book of literary creation, will consecrate three authors: the one from 2019 (which should have been delivered in 2020), the one from 2020 and 2021.
Ahead of its opening to the general public, the Book Fair welcomed the publishing industry on Tuesday with specialist conferences attended by around 7,000 people, including publishers, booksellers, dealers, translators and literary agents.
These three-day sessions aim to revitalize Argentina’s publishing industry, which has been in decline for the past five years. According to the latest report from the Argentine Book Chamber, editorial production in 2020 fell by 30% compared to the previous year and has recorded a 60 percentage point drop since 2016. The average circulation that year was 2,700 copies, while in 2020 it had fallen to 1,600.
Despite the unfavorable economic conditions, the FIL is committed to celebrating the reunion with the public in one of the most read cities in Latin America. “We want it to be the big comeback, the big party,” says Ezequiel Martínez.
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