Does it work. At this book fair Thursday, it looks like the first fair again at the stands, in the halls, between the aisles, even if you practically didn’t have to wait at all to get in.

The day before, the first day of the fair, it was the exact opposite: twenty minutes of waiting in rows of ten, in a dark, empty hall as a side entrance – and again in Hall 3.0. and 3.1. Total emptiness, space and space, as much as you can want.

The notion is vague: a book fair really couldn’t be more beautiful. Stand can be seen, discussed calmly and calmly. For example, the combined stand of publishers CH Beck, Hanser, Aufbau and Suhrkamp is completely sufficient.

How many Canadian writers are there really?

On the other hand, the whole thing seems a bit lost, like a simulation of a book fair, especially in Hall 4, where there are foreign publishers. It also raises the question of the individual stand of many regions of Spain and the huge stand of the Italians: are seventy countries really represented at this fair? Especially since Spain and Italy will be the host countries in the coming years.

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The exact number of Canadian writers living in Frankfurt is also unclear. Especially since the pavilion of the last and this year’s host nation gives the impression that Canada is looking to make a physical presence and its books have completely disappeared.

It is dark in the pavilion, enigmatic ambient sounds emanating from the boxes, and throughout the room there are many, sometimes rising, wavy tracks on which it staggers, rustles and flows, whether it is water, sounds Yes or letters.

Next to each railway establishment is a board on which you can use a QR code to find your way using keywords such as “we” (“the tangible origin of the word, feeling”) or “water” (“the source of life”). Can. in motion up and down the country”). Be able to provide more information about the code or get to know Canadian authors.

The Canadian Pavilion makes you extremely peaceful after a good half hour, no stress; The future of literature is not only digital but also a wellness issue.

Penguin buys rights to Abdulzarak Gunara’s books

A freshly received email almost mercilessly pulls you back into literary life and reminds you that at trade fairs and in publishing it’s always about business. The mail comes from Penguin Verlag, which announces that it has acquired the rights to books by this year’s Nobel laureate Abdulzarak Gunara.

So far there are only a few of these, they are all out of print in German. But will the new and earlier versions of Gunara now be bestsellers, will it be worthwhile for Penguin? Such questions are also again part of the fair. So go! gabaro