Brazil set for limelight at 2013 Frankfurt book fair

FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) ― Brazilian literature and arts will this year come under the spotlight at the world’s biggest book fair, which annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors in the western German city of Frankfurt, organisers said Tuesday.

After New Zealand was last year’s guest of honor, Brazil takes centre stage at the 2013 Frankfurt book fair, with 70 of its authors as well as artists and others expected to showcase the country’s literary and cultural traditions.

“We want to show how culture feeds Brazilian life, especially when one sees what’s happening currently in Brazil,” fair director Juergen Boos told a new conference, referring to a two-week wave of street protests in Brazil.

Brazil’s organizing committee head Renato Lessa said there was a lot of expectation in the fair and that it was important for the country to trumpet its own language internationally.

The authors selected to take part represent “an excellent and vivid assortment,” he said.

“The current selection, although committed to giving a broad sense of the literary variety of the country, aims to show the link between Brazilian contemporary literary trends and the international ones,” he added.

The book fair, which runs from Oct. 9 to 13, will also stage Brazilian concerts, exhibitions and demonstrations of street art, theater and films.

More than 7,300 exhibitors from 97 countries took part in last year’s five-day fair, which drew about 280,000 visitors.