There is a book for everyone at Scandinavia's number one book fair in Gothenburg.

To some Gothenburg’s book fair looks like a gigantic circus and marketplace, and at first glance, this seems to be the case. Here you will find grand-scale entertainment and a flurry of sales activity. It is the largest book fair in Scandinavia, and international interest in it is growing more and more.

This year, its 22nd consecutive year, publishers and agents from 42 countries came in pursuit of Swedish bestsellers.

Growing international interest
”Swedish writers are attracting more and more international interest for every year that goes by,” says Ann-Marie Skarp, head of the publishing house Piratförlaget, who believes that the best part of the fair is meeting all the readers.

Piratförlaget represents such major names as Liza Marklund, whose books have sold six million copies in 28 different languages, and Jan Guillou, whose spy thrillers and historical novels have been successful at home in Sweden and abroad and have sold approximately eight million copies.

Yet the book fair in Gothenburg still makes room for those books that sell in very small editions and seminars that focus on exceptionally local issues. It is precisely this mingling and diversity that is praised by exhibitors and visitors alike.

“A privilege to meet readers”


Mustafa Can, who recently published his first book, enjoys hearing people’s comments on his book. Photo Lars Tunbjörk

Mustafa Can was one of the writers participating in this year’s fair. He came to Sweden 30 years ago from Kurdistan when he was six years old. Today he is considered by many to be one of Sweden’s best storytellers. He is a journalist by trade, and he recently published his first book, Tätt intill dagarna, which is about his mother who died last year.

“It’s a special privilege to be able to meet people who have read my book,” Can says. ”It’s quite fantastic when people come up to me with viewpoints and comments on what I have written in my solitude. It means a lot to me as a writer.”

Theme: freedom of expression
The theme for this year’s fair was freedom of expression, a theme that was established by the fair, Bok & Bibliotek, in collaboration with the International Publishers Association (IPA) and PEN.

Eleven major seminars were held with writers and guests from around the world. IPA and PEN also shared a stand with a stage, Stand up for Freedom of Expression, where a crowded auditorium enjoyed a full program.


IPA and PEN attracted visitors with their stage devoted to this year’s theme: freedom of expression.

Can feels that the book fair does not need a theme like freedom of expression, and says that ”this should be implicit in all book publications and the underlying theme for all book fairs. I come from a culture where what you write today can be the bullet that kills you tomorrow. Freedom of expression is a deadly serious matter there.”

The chairperson for Swedish PEN, Björn Linell, agrees. ”On one hand I am truly happy and very pleased that this year’s theme has dominated everything that’s been happening at the fair. On the other hand I feel a kind of sorrow over the fact that freedom of expression still has to be defended and fought for even at the dawn of the 21st century.”

Truth-tellers from different countries
With the Danish Mohammed caricatures* fresh in people’s minds, the boundaries for freedom of expression were discussed. The internationally renowned author Orhan Pamuk feels that this is the wrong question to address and says: ”It’s not my role as a writer to discuss whether there is a limit to freedom of expression. I just try to tell it like it is, speak the truth.”

The Turkish author Orhan Pamuk aims to speak the truth in his writings. Photo: Ulla Montan

To tell the truth, or at least give her version of it, was also what Cynthia Lennon wanted. She attended the fair with her book John. It describes her ten years together with her former husband, John Lennon, before he met Yoko Ono.

Next year, September 27–30, 2007, Estonia will be the fair’s theme. Bok & Bibliotek will work on this in partnership with the Estonian Cultural Department, the Estonian Literature Information Centre and the Estonian Institute.

Facts

• The book fair had 102,605 visitors this year, compared to 5,000 its first year in 1985.
• 850 exhibitors shared 12,195 square meters.
• 444 seminars were held with 743 lecturers and writers.
• This year the international publishers’ freedom prize went to Iranian, Shahla Lahiji. In 1983 at the age of 42, she became Iran’s first female publisher.
• The Frankfurt Fair is the world’s largest book fair with about 300,000 visitors. Date: October 4–8, 2006.
• Swedish is the fourth most translated language in Germany, and 140 Swedish books were translated in 2004.
• Approximately 22 million books for a total of 2.7 billion SEK (370 million USD) were sold in Sweden in 2004. About one-third of them were fiction.

*In spring 2006 the Danish newspaper, Jyllandsposten, published a series of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. This led Denmark into the largest international crisis since World War II. Danish flags were burned, embassies were torched, some 50 people died and Danish goods were boycotted.
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Kajsa Claude is a freelance journalist without any aspirations to becoming an author. However, she reads all sorts of literature from hard-core American detective stories to Swedish nature poetry. At the book fair she bought Mat för hjärnan, a book about how the brain steers us, which, in turn, is determined by what we eat.

The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.

Translation: Angela Barnett-Lindberg

Classification: A163EN

© Photos 1, 3 and 4: Cecilia Sundstrand
© Photo 2: Lars Tunbjörk
© Photo 5: Ulla Montan