Cairo Book Fair

The Cairo International Book Fair will go ahead in Nasr City as planned although there have been rumours that it would be cancelled because of the unstable political situation.

To celebrate its 45^th anniversary the fair, which is the oldest in the Arab world, will last two days longer than usual.

The theme this year is Culture and Identity after last year’s theme Dialogue, not Clash. There will be participants from 24 countries (seven from the non-Arab world) and 755 publishers will take part, many of whom come from Cairo’s downtown historic used book market, Azbakeya.

This year Kuwait has been announced as the fair’s guest of honour. The person of the year is Egyptian writer Taha Hussein, known as the dean of Arabic literature who died 40 years ago. The General Egyptian Book Organisation, which runs the fair, is publishing 20 of Hussein’s rarest books in celebration. This year there is also a separate section for children’s books.