Indian authors in limelight at Italy Book Fair

After Frankfurt and Moscow in recent years, it is now the turn of Italy, the land of wine and chocolates, to fete India as a guest country at its International Book Fair in May this year.

"Many Indian authors like Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy are very popular among the Italians, especially the younger generation for whom India has always been a radical alternative," Ernesto Ferrero, editorial director of the Turin International Book Fair told PTI.

A total of 15 writers, including Anita Desai and Anita Nair, widely appreciated in the West, and Vikas Swarup, the diplomat-writer whose novel inspired the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, along with others such as Namita Devidayal, Prem Shankar Jha, Sudhir Kakar and Tarun Tejpal have confirmed their participation.

"We are in the process of finalising the list which is expected to go up to 20 authors. Also, we expect 20 to 30 Indian publishers are to attend," says Ferrero who adds that mercurial writer Arundhati Roy would be unable to attend, as she had already committed to another event in Palestine.

The five-day-long 23rd Turin International Book Fair beginning May 13 is scheduled to be held at a renovated former factory of auto giant Fiat in north Italian city of Turin.

Nearly thirty years ago, Italians who were reading about India through writers such as Salgari, Gozzano, Moravia, Paola Pasolini and Manganelli, were exposed to a practically unknown literary world through Salman Rushdie whose second novel Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize.