Arab Success

Arab literature steals show at London Book Fair
5 hours ago

LONDON (AFP) — Arabic writers were thrust into the spotlight at the London Book Fair this week, as the British capital's annual festival showcased the literary talents of the Arab World.
In its 37th edition the publishing professionals' fair invited 22 countries and territories where Arabic is the official language to present their own particular forms of literature.
Organisers at the fair, which drew to a close Wednesday, insisted that the fact that the Paris Book Fair honoured Israeli writers last month was purely a coincidence.
"The real purpose is to sell the rights for the Arab authors in English or other languages," said exhibition manager Emma House.
There have been recent literary successes originating from the Arab world -- notably, Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswani's "The Yacoubian Building", which was translated into 21 languages including English.
But Arab authors who have attracted the eye of British editors remain few and far between.
Publishing house Penguin, for one, is hoping young Saudi author Rajaa Al-San'a's "The Girls of Riyadh", due out in paperback in June, will capture readers' imaginations.
The novel tells the story of four 20-something Saudi women and has been a hit in Arab countries.
Climbing the best-seller list in Britain remains tough, however, for translated novels -- just four percent of fiction books published here are translations, from all languages combined.
For its part, the London Book Fair organised 20 seminars and invited authors and major publishers from the Arab world to help them promote their literature amongst Western professionals.
Sarah Ewans, the British Council's regional director for the Near East and North Africa, said British publishers have told her that they face several obstacles when it comes to Arab literature.
In particular they have trouble identifying good books, lack Arabic-literate staff to read them, and do not have the necessary distribution networks.
Despite that, the British cultural organisation had seen "a real increase of the interest for Arabic literature" in the past two to three years, said Ewans.
Several countries, including Lebanon, Oman and Saudi Arabia, even set up their own stands at the fair to help promote their country's writers.
"The market is potentially very large" for Arab authors, said Margaret Obank, founder of the Banipal publishing house which sells English translations of Arabic books.
"After 9/11 people thought, my god we ignored that (part of the world)," she said.
"They now realise there is literature out there."
Despite all that, having to translate books remains a major barrier holding back greater literary exchanges between the West and the Arab world.
A 2003 report from the United Nations Development Programme estimated that just 50 Arabic-language books a year were translated into another language.
Samuel Shimon, the author of "An Iraqi in Paris", which has just been published in French by Actes Sud, hopes that the success of his novel in France will help him promote it in Britain.
"Everyone has been asking me about who holds the rights to my book -- it has sparked real interest," the author said.