HCM CITY — New titles by both local and international writers will be a treat that avid readers look forward to at the sixth edition of the HCM City Book Fair that opens later this month.
Fair organisers said the number of stalls will increase by 15 per cent over last year to 384 and 31 foreign publishers from the UK, the US, France, China, Germany, Spain and other countries will participate in the event.
Big players in the publishing industry have not lost time in coming with new titles they hope will be well received at the fair.
The Youth Publishing House will have 74 new titles and reprints of 94 bestsellers including The Joke by Phan Hon Nhien, Three… Thousand and One Nights by Mac Can, Close Eyes to See Paris by Duong Thuy, and Z-men Knights by Bui Chi Vinh.
However, its ace is the Island of Dreams, the latest work by best-selling writer Nguyen Nhat Anh. His novel, Give Me a Ticket to Childhood was a big sensation and earned the publishing house big revenues at last year's event.
The company has also published three of Anh's best-selling novels - Schoolgirls, A Pigeon that Does Not Carry Letters and Balloon into the Air - in a collection of picture books designed by the Art Sign Company.
The Kim Dong Publishing House, meanwhile, rests its hopes on the nine latest episodes of the Kaleidoscope series, also by Nguyen Nhat Anh, which is believed to be a direct competitor to his own Island of Dreams.
Kim Dong will also release a new series of historical picture books titled Heroes of the Southern Land by famous painter Nguyen Dong Hai. The first five of these feature figures like Nguyen Tri Phuong, Nguyen Trung Truc, Truong Dinh, Nguyen Hue and Bui Thi Xuan.
The Phuong Nam Books Company will bring to the fair new titles like In the Middle of a Lost Flow by Nguyen Danh Lam, Export of Laughs by Le Hoang, and a posthumous manuscript by author Xuan Sach.
Translation
Vinabooks, the country's biggest online bookstore, will introduce Pulitzer-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, which is ranked among top ten works of the decade.
Translations of a three-part detective series by Ireland's Benjamin Black and a cowboy trio by America's Cormac McCarthy will also make their debut at the event by courtesy of Vinabooks.
However, Vinabooks' trump card is said to be a novel by a popular woman singer whose name will only be revealed at the book fair.
Chibooks, which is taking part in the event for the first time, will showcase two heavyweights including American Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief which was adapted to become a Holywood blockbuster and Chinese writer Mo Yan's The Frog which was a bestseller in China. — VNS