FIL Lima Draws Robust Crowd

by David Unger -- Críticas, 9/1/2008

The 13th Feria Internacional de Libro de Lima (Lima’s International Book Fair, or FIL Lima), held from July 24–August 3, registered a remarkable 40 percent increase in attendance and 35 percent increase in sales from 2007, indicating a robust book culture. Though Lima’s Jockey Club Mall Convention Center, with semi-permanent tent structures jury-rigged on a mall parking lot on the outskirts of Lima, was not the ideal venue, the low admission price (U.S. $0.30) and the 260 ancillary events (readings, talks and performances) contributed to high attendance.

Liliana Minaya, the managing director of the book fair, complained at the close of the fair that it was a shame that Lima “doesn’t have an 8000 square meter venue that can offer a dignified space for an event such as ours” and appealed to the government to construct an adequate convention center for the book fair and sixteen other national trade fairs.

Still, the 160 individual publishers in 250 booths, with neighboring Chile as Guest of Honor, were pleased. In total, 34 publishers took part in Chile’s festive 250 square meter booth. Cervantes prize winners Gonzalo Rojas and Jorge Edwards led a delegation of 20 Chilean writers, among them Alberto Fuguet, Oscar Hahn, Diamela Eltit, and Pablo Simonetti, whose ménage a trois novel La razón de los amantes (“The Reason of Lovers”; Planeta Chile, 2007) has sold 60,000 copies in Chile alone. [Don’t miss the review in the next issue of Críticas.—Ed.]

International flavor

Among other international writers who read and presented books were Mexican Cristina Rivera Garza, Cuban Antonio Orlando Rodríguez (2008 Premio Alfaguara de Novela), and Nicaraguan Gioconda Belli. As the readings wound down each evening, international music groups like Inti-Illmani, Javier Parra y los Imposibles and Chicas del Sol en Vivo performed inside the fairgrounds.

Controversial Peruvian novelist and perennial Nobel literature prize candidate Mario Vargas Llosa made his first-ever appearance at the Peruvian fair on the final day to present a collection of essays on his work, Las guerras de este mundo (“The Wars of This World”; Planeta Peru, 2008). A candidate in 1990 for president of Peru (he sold his house in Lima and became a citizen of Spain upon his defeat), Vargas Llosa was greeted warmly by the standing-room crowd of 1500, which seemed intent to let “bygones be bygones.” The collection of 19 essays on his work, by writers as diverse as Enrique Krauze, Nélida Piñón, and Antonio Tabucchi, was a “monument to friendship,” Vargas Llosa declared.

Fomenting a passion for books

With an economy growing at a faster rate than any other in Latin America, Peru is investing in the building of both school and public libraries, primarily in rural areas, and the promotion of books and writers (Trujillo, in northern Peru, has a biannual book fair that has featured such writers as Ana Castillo, Laura Restrepo, and Alfredo Bryce Echenique.)

In recent years, Peru has given rise to several notable new publications and publishers. Etiqueta Negra (Black Label, as in Johnnie Walker scotch) has arguably become the Spanish-language book industry’s most sought-after literary magazine. After six years of publication and 52 issues, its fame is worldwide. Editor Marco Áviles is redesigning the web site (to offer online subscriptions) and beginning to pay contributors, who have included Daniel Alarcón, Gay Talese, John Lee Anderson, and Oliver Sacks. Further plans include selling issues through New York and San Francisco bookstores.

Editorial Estruendomudo, founded five years ago by then 21-year-old Álvaro Lasso, initially published poetry in print runs of 200–300. The press now publishes fiction with print-runs of 2000. A popular series focuses on theme type anthologies—stories about Cuzco locals sought by blond haired gringas interested in flings or soccer stories in which contributors are dressed as soccer players for the book jacket.

In 2009, FIL Lima will feature Brazil as the Guest of Honor. Peru will not have a stand at this year’s FIL Guadalajara, but its director Liliana Minaya (email: cp-libro@amauta.rcp.net.pe) will attend the Reforma National Conference (http://www.reforma.org/), slated for September 18-21 in El Paso, TX, with a small sample of Peruvian books.