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Guest of Honor: Italy

In 2022, Book World Prague will introduce Umberto Eco’s homeland, Italy.

The choice of Umberto Eco, who would be celebrating his ninetieth birthday this year, is connected to the selection of the 27th Book World’s guest of honour. The book fair will treat its visitors to the literary richness of Italy, a country with robust literary tradition.

Book World Prague will also remember some other jubilees of outstanding Italian writers of international renown – one hundred years have passed since the birth of the controversial filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini or the brilliant novelist Elsa Morante.

The Italian programme’s main focus, however, will be on contemporary authors whose books were published in Czech translation in recent years. It is not a coincidence that Italy becomes the guest of honour one hundred years after the Italian Cultural Institute was founded in Prague – the oldest of all of the country’s 83 Cultural Institutes around the globe. “Italy is home to some of literature’s great names, including Ovid, Dante, Niccolò Machiavelli, Curzio Malaparte or Umberto Eco. And it remains a prolific literary cradle to these days. The wealth and diversity of Italy’s literature is an outstanding example of a body of writing famous the world over."