The bookstore in the Lisbon pavilion at the Buenos Aires Book Fair sold an average of 50 books a day in its first week, a “very surprising” figure, not only because of the quantity, but also because of the demand in Portuguese.
According to Marcos Almada, the bookseller responsible for selling books in the Lisbon pavilion, in the first week of the fair – between May 23 and 30, including the first two days of professional days – more than 350 books had been sold, including the selection of 723 works in Portuguese brought by the Portuguese delegation and those that the bookseller has collected from Latin American publishers.
“Given the Argentinean [economic] crisis we’re going through, with books being expensive and people having no money, we were very surprised by the number of sales, because normally the cities invited don’t have as many sales as the publishing groups,” said Marcos Almada.
Even more surprising for the bookseller is the number of Portuguese-language books being sold.
“This shows that there is an idiosyncrasy for reading in Portuguese, in addition to the demand from visitors from Brazil,” he said, explaining that in addition to the natural curiosity of those who want to try reading in Portuguese, there are academics, teachers and translators, but also students, because “in state schools there is Portuguese as a second language”.
The interest in the Portuguese language in this country also has another root, explained Marcos Almada, the search for a better understanding of Brazilian literature and music, especially bossa nova, which has great penetration in Argentine culture.
As for the best-selling authors, the bookseller said that there is a balance between classics and contemporaries, and of the former, “Fernando Pessoa is undoubtedly number one”, but Eça de Queirós and José Saramago are also extremely popular.
Among the contemporaries, Marcos Almada highlighted Gonçalo M. Tavares and Lídia Jorge, who sold out in the first few days.
Another reason why people look for specific authors is that they want to get to know the works of the guest authors.
The fact that there is an extended Lisbon cultural program and posters near the pavilion with the writers’ photos is another attraction for buying books, he added.
He also said that there was a growing demand for illustrated books and books about Lisbon, particularly art and architecture, which “also sell a lot”.
As an example, he mentioned a book on Lisbon’s tiles, which sold out in its first few days.
Regarding the works that have already sold out, he pointed to “The Book of Disquiet” – “the most sought-after” – which has since been reissued and restocked, and books by Lídia Jorge and Isabela Figueiredo.
