The Murcia Book Fair returns this year in person, with accumulated enthusiasm and desire. “After a 2020 virtual Fair, this is the reunion fair,” says Asensio Piqueras, director of the Murcia Book Fair, an event that started on Wednesday with the proclamation of the Cartagena poet María Teresa Cervantes and that will last until next Tuesday, October 12. As the main novelty, its director highlights that the fair will be “the most inclusive and inclusive in the world.” Thanks to the NaviLens accessibility system, a code has been generated for each of the booths that when approached with the mobile – too much precision is not necessary – will provide all the information that a person with visual or hearing impairment may need.
In addition, this year, the Paseo Alfonso X el Sabio hosts an exhibition consisting of 21 plastic works with the book and reading as the main theme. An exhibition that was born after the announcement of the I Contest of Plastic and Visual Arts linked to the Book Fair, which has been won by Fernando Arribillaga. The sample accompanies the 41 booths installed in the central avenue, a score more than the first year of the fair, and 60 publishing labels. This year’s poster is the work of the artist Juan Diego Ingelmo Benavente.
Next to the booths, the fair’s presentation area has also been installed, through which great authors from the regional and national scene will pass. A space that will host, this Friday at 7:00 p.m., the presentation of ‘The ritual of the dead’, by the Madrid writer Nagore Suárez. The also journalist became popular as a result of the mystery threads that she periodically publishes on the social network Twitter. After her first novel, ‘Music and Bones’, the writer takes up the setting and the characters in a new story, full of intrigue and secrets from the past.
The popularity in social networks of the ‘youtuber’ and content creator Malbert and the interest generated by his anecdotes has led him to publish ‘Puto amor’, a book in which the author concentrates his stories of love and heartbreak in a humorous tone. Malbert will be signing copies this Saturday, at the Authors Meeting Booth (4), at 12.30 pm.
Roberto Sánchez is further away from fiction. The announcer and writer will present on Saturday afternoon, at 7:30 p.m., ‘Save my children’ (Roca), a story in which the police team formed by the already chief inspector Isabel Velasco and her assistant, Ricardo Benítez, must investigate some ramifications of the case that they resolved in ‘Asesinos de series’, the previous novel by the Barcelona journalist.
Look candel
The writer and journalist Manuel Mira Candel (Orihuela, 1945), who was head of the LA VERDAD delegation in Alicante, presents his latest novel, ‘Las tenis vietnamitas’, on booths 31 and 32 of the Book Fair this Friday. The author won the Azorín Novel Prize in 2004 with ‘The Secret of Orcelis’, and won the second Dino Buzzati International Literary Prize in 2015 for the novel ‘The olive tree that did not burn in Thessaloniki’.
Once again, the young audience will have a special appointment with Martina D’Antiochia, one of the youngest and most popular ‘youtubers’ in the country, who will present the forbidden love story ‘Nobody like him’, on Sunday at 5.30 pm.
Two hours later, the journalist and writer Marta Robles will present ‘Carnal Passions’, a review of the loves of the kings that changed the history of Spain.
A slight review of the national history and especially of the Basque Country, Navarra and Burgos, but this time closer in time, through a family of businessmen, is what María Antonia Quesada proposes in ‘The ingenuity of the mediocre’. This is the fifth novel by this author, which in this volume has elements of an economic thriller, how the generational change is one of the most difficult crossroads that family businesses face. The author will be at the booth of the Olé Libros publishing house (30-31) this Saturday, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Also on Saturday, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and on Sunday, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Emilio P. Rubio will pass by that same booth, to present ‘Una gabardina azul’. After forty years writing and without daring to share his texts with the general public, fate led Emilio P. Rubio from Murcia to publish his first novel. “A blue raincoat” tells the bizarre story of a man, a simple homeless man, whose life changes when he is mistaken for a famous writer.
Word games, double meanings, irony and humor are the key to the charm of ‘Sintimiento’, the second collection of poems by Juan Carlos Prieto Martínez. A work that defends feelings against logic and that comes after ‘+ Tontheridas’, the first publication by the author, an English teacher in San Pedro del Pinatar, which saw the light two weeks before the start of the confinement. Prieto will sign copies this Sunday, at 12 noon, at booth 32, of the Editorial Club Universitario (ECU).
Already on Monday, at 5.30 pm, Marta Navarro will present ‘From within’. Before her novel was published, the young Almeria writer with Murcian roots had already been selected as a finalist for the Planeta Prize. The equestrian world is the setting in which ‘From Within’ takes place, a story in which Marcos, a 25-year-old journalist, will suddenly find himself faced with the opportunity of his life: solving one of the most enigmatic police cases in the country , from the hand of the enemy of his adolescence.
‘The Little Prince’ in braille
An edition illustrated by López Salueña of ‘Magallanes. The man and his gesta ‘, by Stefan Zweig, the collection of books by the Caravacan author Miguel Espinosa or various art encyclopedias are the main novelties that are housed in booths 39, 40 and 41, shared by La Fea Burguesía, Tirano Banderas, Alfaqueque and Gollarín. Authors from the Region such as Manuel Moyano, Paco López Mengual, Ángel Almela Sachs or the Granada-born Paz Hinojosa will sign this weekend at the booth, which has a 10% discount on their books.
For its part, Murcia Romántica gives a surprise gift for purchases of more than 30 euros in its booth. There they will sign books Caridad Bernal or the young Lorca Elena Castillo, winner of the VI Titania Prize for Romantic Novels.
Booth 33, belonging to Dokusou, Raspabook, Blue Book and ECU, will be another of the spaces through which popular writers such as Paco Rabadán, Charo Guarino, Sergio Reyes will pass, who will present ‘Mursiya. The painter of the Wolf King ‘, or Marianela Ibáñez.
The program also includes a series of thematic talks designed to delve into different areas. At the presentation of ‘I want to publish my book. An approach to the publishing industry ‘, its author, Juan Triviño, will give some keys for new writers to take their first steps. The round tables ‘After Poetry Laboratories of Impurity’, by Pedro Alberto Cruz, Rubén Martín and Raúl Quinto, or ‘Novela Negra en feminine’ with Anabel Rodríguez, Ana Ballabriga, Susana Martín Gijón and Mónica Rouanet will delve into genres concrete. In addition, meetings are offered with the authors Antonio Soto, Jerónimo Tristante and the creator of the literature blog El Quinto Libro.
Discounts
El Corte Inglés participates one more year very actively in the Fair, with two booths, 5 and 6 of the route in Paseo Alfonso X. Readers will be able to purchase with a 10% discount the titles most demanded by readers and a large selection of works of all genres and for all audiences. In addition, it will have a wide program of meetings with authors with whom to exchange opinions about their literary work and take copies of their signed books.
For the little ones, the Archaeological Museum of Murcia will host several sessions of the storyteller ‘El librófono’, by Alicia Merino. Macaria, a literary reporter, presents a new terminal to connect with the most illustrious authors, such as Gianni Rodari, Michael Ende, Hans Christian Andersen or Suzy Lee and listen to their best stories live. The complete program of the fair can be consulted on the website ferialibromurcia.com.
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