Works by such Spanish language greats as Federico García Lorca and the Catalan Jeume Cabré feature at the festival, said Péter Szakonyi, the festival?s spokesman. Film lovers will also be pleased to see the diaries of Pedro Almodóvar published in Hungarian, he added.
László Péter Zentai, the festival?s director and the head of the Association of Hungarian Book Publishers and Booksellers, said that, in addition to Semprún, the festival?s ?other guest of honour? is Chingiz Aitmatov, who will surely be welcomed by many Hungarians as their ?childhood love?. The Kyrgyz writer is a crucial figure in 20th century literature, and he arrives in Budapest with the manuscript of a new, unpublished book, entitled ?The Eternal Bride?.
Germany?s Berliner Zimmer, which was first introduced at the book fair in Lepizig, will visit Budapest after Warsaw and Prague. A literary café will operate at the German stand, and its programme will include readings by 13 writers affiliated with Berlin.
Hungarian literature and book publishing owes much to the intermediation of German culture and the importance of German book publishing. ?We would probably not have a Nobel laureate writer if German readers had not rediscovered Imre Kertész?s wonderful novel, Fateless?, Zentai said. The whole idea for the Budapest book festival was conceived in Hungarian-German cooperation in 1992, he added.
Zentai noted that this year?s book festival will conclude with a literary salon of important Hungarian authors celebrating their birthdays. György Méhes is 90 this year, Menyhért Lakatos is 80, Ádám Bodor, Ervin Lázár and Magda Székely are 70, Géza Bereméyni and György Spiró are 60 and Pál Békés is 50.
A total of 550 publishers will present their 45-50,000 books on three levels of the Budapest Congress Centre and in front of its entrance, including 300 books which will be published to coincide with the festival.
Hungary?s book publishing industry has expanded for several years now, and last year was especially successful, Szakonyi said. As many as 13,000 titles were published in Hungary in 2005, nearly 1,800 more than in the previous year. And the total print-run of books increased from 2004?s 32 million to 41 million last year. The number is well under the all-time record of 108 million set in 1989, before the state stopped subsidising many books after Hungary?s transformation to a multi-party democracy, but book sales topped HUF 62.7 billion in 2005, more than ever before.
Zentai noted that Hungary?s publishing industry has been hit hard by serious personal losses in recent years. Sándorné Püski, wife of the legendary publisher Sándor Püski died, after serving the interests of Hungarian book publishing for more than 70 years. In addition, Lívia Mátis also passed away, who was the founder and head of Kortárs Publishing House. Mátis worked hard to promote contemporary and classic Hungarian literature.
Zentai dedicated this year?s festival and its anticipated success to their memories.
Aitmatov Receives Award From President
Chingiz Aitmatov was awarded the Order of Merit, Officer?s Cross, one of the state of Hungary?s highest awards, by President László Sólyom at the opening of the festival on Thursday.
The 78-year-old author is the Kyrgyz ambassador to Brussels. He arrived from the Belgian capital on Wednesday and attended the opening of an exhibition showcasing his life work at Budapest?s Ervin Szabó Library. Aitmatov?s programme includes book signing events and question and answer sessions. On Saturday, he will attend a screening of the film ?The First Teacher? in Budapest?s Örökmozgó cinema.
The world-famous author has written his books in Russian, but he spoke in Kyrgyz at the exhibition opening. He told the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) that Russian was important for the small Asian nations that once existed as part of the Soviet Union, because the Russian language represents a means of communication to the outside world. He stressed that he was a completely bilingual author and considered it important that small nations remain bilingual.
Aitmatov published his first novels in the 1950s and he was already well-known throughout the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. This unknown veterinary surgeon from the countryside mastered the Russian language so well that he managed to astonish even the Russians themselves.
He wrote the majority of his books in Russian and they were translated into more than 100 languages, including most European languages. ?Jamila?, ?The Day Lasts Longer than a Hundred Years?, ?The First Teacher? and ?The White Ship? are some of his books also well-known among Hungarian readers.
Asked why he still writes in Russian more than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ambassador of Kyrgyz culture said his language is practically unknown outside of his homeland and as a result of the lack of good translators, there is no chance for translations to be made. Although he wrote his first stories in Kyrgyz, he changed to Russian early on in order to ensure that his works reached audiences around the world, he said.
?I think in Kyrgyz and Russian, as well?, he replied in Russian to a question asked in Russian, but added that his works written in Russian are translated by others to his mother tongue.
His recently completed novel, ?The Eternal Bride? was also written in Russian. The book, which is yet to be published, is set in a small village in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Despite being set in this far-away location, the novel discusses some of the universal and global problems of the early 21st century, he added.
Source: Hungarian Press Agency (MTI)
