Gothenburg Book Fair draws more
Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Gothenburg Book Fair draws more than 106,000 visitors this year

The interest in the Gothenburg Book Fair this year appears to have been great - the number of registered visits reached over 106,000. Over a hundred thousand. It is a fantastic milestone for us, says Oskar Ekström, director of the Gothenburg Book Fair.

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The American author Jamaica Kincaid, Carola's autobiography and the fair's themes of public education and games seem to have attracted a wide range of visitors to this year's Book Fair.

These are two strong themes that have reached new audiences, says Ekström.

I'm not saying that the reading crisis is over, but at the Book Fair you see something different. There is a very strong attraction in literature.

The fair's talking points

One of the talking points at the fair has been journalist Jessika Gedin's conversation with author Jamaica Kincaid.

It was a very nice conversation, I think she (Kincaid) sat and signed for two and a half hours afterwards. Then there was Carola's booth program. I think it's one of the most well-attended the Book Fair has ever had.

The program at the fair consisted of author talks, debates and in-depth discussions with links to Sweden's current literary publishing. The fair is also an important meeting place, according to Ekström:

People want to meet now. The book fair is an open arena and has freedom of expression at its absolute core. And there is a strong trend around buying books.

Some drama

This year's edition of the fair also brought some political and media dramaturgical explosives.

There were a couple of incidents that are of course very sad, we think, says Oskar Ekström.

On Saturday, the conversation at the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association's booth was disrupted when an activist threw red paint at an Israeli flag.

Later on Saturday evening, it emerged that sports star Stefan Holm had been reported to the police, accused of strangling journalist Emil Persson.

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AuthorTT News AgencyEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers
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