Lisbon residents know the ritual well: from the end of May until mid-June, Eduardo VII Park turns into the country’s biggest bookshop, a paradise for any book lover, with tens of thousands of titles to choose from. This year, the Book Fair has 350 stands hosted by 128 participants, representing around 900 publishing brands in total.
According to the organisers, the last five editions have attracted an average of 850,000 visitors. Days like the 4 June public holiday, when a midweek day off coincided with fine weather, will certainly have helped that average to be reached again – or even surpassed – this year.
While a long queue of young people waited patiently for an autograph and a quick chat with German-American author S.T. Ashman, others wandered around Praça Leya, where several generations and very different styles of writers mingled, from Hugo Van Der Ding and Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho to Daniel Sampaio, Cristina Norton, Fernando Pinto Amaral, Nuno Rogeiro and acclaimed Angolan author Pepetela, winner of the Camões Prize in 1997.
'Year after year there are more people, more crowds, and that is good. It is very good, because people say no one reads any more and that there are fewer and fewer readers. That is partly true but, on the other hand, there are pockets of resistance, let us say, and this is an example. It is a celebration, exactly as we like it to be. Books are a celebration,' Pepetela tells Euronews.
