October 14th, 2007

While my friends at the Frankfurt Book Fair are quite rightly celebrating the completion of another successful fair at the traditional Sunday night wrap party, I am sitting in a departure lounge at Frankfurt airport, about to embark on the 22.5 hour flight back to Melbourne, Australia.

Of course, Australians aren’t the only ones who travel a long way to get here. Spare a thought too for the New Zealanders and South Americans too, and those from the Far East.

For many long-distance travellers, the Frankfurt Book Fair is just one stop on a round-the-world tour. I spoke to one hard-working Australian rights manager this morning who had already completed 45 meetings in New York before arriving in Frankfurt, had completed 75 appointments at the fair, and has already left this afternoon for London for several days of meetings there. Give that woman a bonus!

I’ve had a great time sharing my week with you. Frankfurt provides a unique experience which, like a classic film, rewards re-visiting. I met more than one first-timer this year who, I’m sure, will be desperate to come back again next year for that heady mix of back-to-back appointments, crowded aisle parties, felicitous happenstance, buzz-filled bars, and friendships that build and deepen as the years roll by. I know I am.

My flight is boarding. Auf wiedersehen!

For a first-timer, a curious thing about the Frankfurt Book Fair is the relatively low profile of those people without whom there would be no books to trade – the authors. While there ar appearances by German writers and the occasional big international name (Umberto Eco made an appearance on the ‘blue sofa’ this year) the fair is fundamentally about the book trade circus – agents, publishers, marketers – rather than the creators.

So it comes as a surprise to turn a corner in the International Centre and suddenly come face to face with the images and voices of some of the world’s most renowned writers. The huge black and white close-up portrait photos are accompanied by a set of headphones. Put them on and you hear an intriguing dialogue. “Mr Kertesz,” says Imre Kertesz, “Your time is nearing its end. Are you satisfied? No”. Or, “Well, Frank McCourt, do you believe in God?”, or “Zadie, what do all three of your books have in common?”

It’s the brainchild of Tobias Wenzel, an affable German radio journalist. He explains that while conducting a series of literary interviews a couple of years ago he would sometimes reach the end of the interviews and sense a certain disappointment in his interviewees that he hadn’t asked them a particular question. From then on he decided to end every interview with the query “what is the question you’ve always wanted someone to ask you?”

He recorded the replies and the result is this exhibition, which puts together the ‘my question for myself’ of a selection of them – the project took on a life of its own and he has over 90 subjects now – with their portraits.

The arresting photographs are the work of Carolin Seeliger. She focuses on the eyes of her subject so that although the size and concentration of the photo is technically unforgiving (Paul Auster, alone among the interviewees, apparently demanded that he be allowed to wear sunglasses as he was worried about his wrinkles), the gaze of the viewer is drawn in, almost, it feels, into the subject’s mind.

The combination works perfectly. The Icelandic writer Hallgrimur Helgason stares intently out, a slight smile playing on his face. “Mr Helgason, do you want anything else,” he asks. “Yes, another two lives, please!”. A slightly worried-looking but clearly very in the moment Jonathan Franzen wonders why he is so agreeable when people ask to take his picture (in a lengthy reply he decides that “the more you show of yourself the more protected you are”). Richard Powers’s answer to his question “what is evil?” is also fairly involved and I ask Tobias if any national writerly characteristics have emerged. Do Americans tend to be more verbose?

Not necessarily, but they are always super-professional about it, he says. What the American and English writers do have in common, he says, laughing, is that they always begin their answer with the joke “that’s a very good question!”

Some of the questions are also perfectly in authorial character. Umberto Eco, interviewed at this year’s fair, offers “Umberto Eco, is this a question? Yes”.

The British author William Boyd was one of the interviewees (he asks himself about the influence of Africa on his work) and was so taken with the project that he will be featuring it in spring next year in Granta 100, which he is guest-editing. The exhibition is to travel around other book fairs next year and will eventually be made into a book.

Of course, at the end of my chat with Tobias, I have to turn the tables on him. “Tobias, what question would you have liked me to ask you?”. He’s obviously thought about this and answers, quick as a flash, “Tobias, is there life before death?” he pauses, “I’m not sure”.

I received quite a few requests this week for the presentation on the Australian book market given at the Australian Publishers Association seminar on Wednesday. If you’re looking for more information on Australia - the world’s fourth-largest English-speaking market, you can now read Think Australian 2007, the annual update on the Australian market, online.

Like many non-English-speaking countries, Poland tries hard to make its literature accessible to English-language publishers. Twice a year, the Polish Book Institute in Krakov chooses 38 titles out of the country’s annual book production of 20,000 titles to feature in a publication, 38 New Books from Poland. Since 1999, The Institute has also run a subsidy programme to support the translation of Polish writing. International publishers can apply to receive up to 100% of their translation and rights acquisition costs. (For more information, email j.czudec@bookinstitute.pl.)

Around 26% of all books published in Poland are translations, with English-language-originated titles dominant, followed by German, French, Italian and Russian books. At least 50% of Poles read at least one book a year.

The final event involving Catalan Culture as the 2007 Guest of Honour was the handover of the symbolic ‘GuestScroll’ to Turkey, the 2008 Guest of Honour. Prior to the exchange between Anna Soler-Pont, commissioner of Catalan culture, and Ümit Yaşar Gözüm, Turkish coordinator for the Guest of Honor program, Book Fair Director Juergen Boos praised this Fair’s series of Catalan events, saying, “This year we have collected a world that is not well known,” and expressed high hopes for next year.

The event began with a speech by the Catalan novelist Baltasar Porcel entitled ‘Books, Heaven and Earth,’ in which he highlighted the fact that Catalonia and Turkey may appear to be geographically and culturally distant, but share the Mediterranean Sea – what the Ottoman’s called ‘the White Sea.’ It is, Porcel said, ‘a region that has attracted ‘a multiplicity of peoples and languages.’

‘These age-old populations have always been linked together, interrelated,’ he continued, and ‘There are in this sea and universe as many different shores and locales as there are waves that wash up upon them, mingling them together as one.’

We are all, Porcel asserted - ‘the children of Odysseus, who from the eastern sea won the west at the tremulous tiller of his black ship, conquering one-eyed monsters and loving the most lascivious goddesses of his time.’ It creates what he described as a ‘polytheistic culture’ with a complex exchange of ideas – one for which the Frankfurt Book Fair itself serves as a suitable metaphor.

Turkish writer Elif Shafak, who first offered a reading from her novel Araf, said she embraced Porcel’s assertion, saying that the same idea of multiplicity was reflected in the logo that was designed for next year, which incorporates a multitude of colors. ‘The European and Asian worlds come together in Turkey and we want to bring this world with us to Frankfurt,’ she said.

As the Frankfurt Book Fair comes to a close, its organisers couldn’t be happier with how it has gone and with attendances, notwithstanding the little hiccup of Friday’s train strike.

‘I walked around Hall 8 yesterday afternoon and the word on the street was very positive,’ noted Thomas Minkus, Frankfurt’s Director of Marketing and Press & Corporate Communications (pictured). ‘Comments ranged from “the best fair ever” to “a good working fair”. Publishers were extremely pleased. We had the same response from the Literary Scouts & Agents Centre.’ Minkus noted that he had heard of ‘lots of medium-sized deals’ being made, beyond the headline-grabbing big-money trading.

The weekend at Frankfurt brings an influx of consumers to the fair and a gradual reduction in rights activity, as international publishers and agents start to wend their way home. Some publishers in Hall 8 (the English-language hall) would be glad to see the hall closed on Sunday, one suggestion under discussion at a meeting of national stand directors yesterday. While Minkus concedes Sunday is less important for Hall 8, he points out the weekend presents ‘an excellent opportunity to walk around the halls for market research’ - to see the different designs and subjects being published in other markets. Given some arrive in and leave the fairgrounds without venturing outside Hall 8 at all, that’s not bad advice.

Another feature of the fair appears to be the growing amount of activity taking place in Frankfurt’s hotels and elsewhere on the days leading up to the fair’s official Wednesday opening. While Minkus sees this activity as very much part of the fair’s culture, he sees no role for the fair in giving these pre-fair activities more structure: ‘We need to make the fair as easy and convenient as possible for everybody but we shouldn’t over-organise,’ he said. ‘The agents’ and press centres are open on Tuesday already, and that’s probably enough.’

Minkus adjudged the Catalan Guest of Honour presence a great success, with Catalan writers Quim Monzó and Maria Barbal two of the superstars of the fair. ‘I’m extremely pleased that we now know what Catalan Culture means. It’s been arguably the most modern and diverse Guest of Honour appearance for years.’

The highlight of Minkus’ fair was the reading by controversial female Turkish novelist Elif Shafak at today’s official ceremony to hand over to next year’s Guest of Honour, Turkey. ‘It sends a signal that our next Guest of Honour will try to present Turkey as it really is, not a glossed-over version.’

So, can we expect changes to next year’s Frankfurt Book Fair? Minkus anticipates ’some tweaking here and there’: a new-look website, further expansion and internationalisation of the fair’s “Education for the Future” programme, as well as ongoing support for the Cape Town and Abu Dhabi International Book Fairs. And maybe this blog will continue too.

The International Centre opened this morning with a session entitled ‘God is with creative artists,’ a discussion of the role of Islam in the lives of Muslim musicians and writers. As all the panelists acknowledged, there’s traditionally been a tension between Islam and the arts, with some religious scholars claiming that the Koran outlaws artistic endeavours, and others taking a more liberal view.

Both of the musicians on the panel were converts to Islam: singer/songwriter Hülya Kandemir and rapper Ammar114. They echoed each other in agreement when asked by the moderator, journalist Martina Sabra, whether they felt their music was in accordance with Islam: ‘When I discovered that babies make a sound that’s a lot like singing, I realized that my voice and musical ability is a gift from God,’ said Kandemir, who famously took a break from public performances prior to converting – something she documents in her book, Himmelstochter. Mein Weg vom Popstar zu Allah (Skydaughter: My Way from Popstar to Allah). Rapper Ammar114 said that since he was a Muslim, everything that flowed through him – including his raps – were the gift of Allah. Both musicians agreed that their practice of Islam forces them to consider where and when they perform – and Kandemir, for example, will no longer perform on stage, or in a place where alcohol is served or people are allowed to smoke (still a problem in Frankfurt, despite the change in the law).

Moderator Martina Sabra wondered aloud if there was a new movement of young people engaging in ‘Pop Islam’ – as suggested by Julia Gerlach in the book Zwischen Pop und Dschihad: Muslimische Jugendliche in Deutschland. (Between Pop and Dschihad: Young Muslims in Germany). Neither musician wanted to be described as ‘pop’ per se – Kandemir considers herself a singer/songwriter and Ammar114 says that the idea of pop is ‘alien’ to rap.

For her part Kandemir is actively promoting a competition to find new young Muslim artists in Germany via a cross-genre competition facilitated by the Web site Islam.de. “It’s important to have a place online where people can go,’ she said, ‘Many Muslims are suspicious about art, so I want to try and entice them.’ Award co-founder Tasniem Ibrahim emphasized that though young people and artist may have different interpretations of the role of art in their lives and its relationship to their religion, ‘Islam is still common to us all.’

One of the curious consequences of being a book critic is the tendency of friends to invite you out for dinner at literary themed restaurants – especially, it seems, restaurants named after Ernest Hemingway. So far, I’ve visited Hemingway-themed establishments in Abu Dhabi, Paris (the best!) and Cape Town. Two nights ago I was introduced to the Hemingway Lounge here in Frankfurt. It’s a large cocktail-bar restaurant close to the Römer with a view of the river Main. The menu is divided in biographical segments of Hemingway’s life with sections featuring food from Spain (tapas), Cuba (stuffed tortillas), Key West (fish) Africa (meat), and France (cheesy potato gratin dishes). Surprisingly, the food comes in Texas-sized portions, which can make splitting a main course an attractive option. That said, what tickled me most about my whole meal there – where I was accompanied by colleagues from London, Buenos Aires, New York and Rome — were the desserts named for the people in Papa’s life. My next visit, I’m ordering a Martha Gellhorn.