Six important names in Romanian literature recommend a shopping list for Bookfest 2025. The book fair starts today

The largest book fair in Romania starts today, May 28, at the Romexpo Center in Bucharest, and is completed on Sunday, June 1st. The event has in the center of attention the Portuguese literature and includes over 25 events dedicated to the Iberian country.

This year's edition opens with the quote “where the great end and the earth is waiting”, inspired by José Saramago. A motto of the desire to exploration, where the Atlantic meets Europe through Portugal. Within the Romexpo festival are organized over 450 debate events, book launches and film screenings.

Today's program, June 28:

• 12:00-The official opening of the International Bookfest Book Show, 18th edition
• 12:30 – The inauguration of the Portugal stand, an invited country of honor of the International Bookfest Book Show, 2025 edition
• 16:00, at the Portugal stand – books, courage and communities: about the power of independent cultural affairs. Guests: Rosa Azevedo, Raul Popescu, Ana Sipciu. Moderator: Oana Purice.
• 5:30 pm, Portugal stand – round table: Portuguese profions. Guests: Claudia Vlad, Iolanda Vasile, Andreea Teletin, Vlad Bogza, Veronica Manole, Adriana Ciama. Moderate: Simina Popa.

The full program can be consulted on Bookfest.ro.

What Portuguese Literature Books recommend writers

Hotnews asked more writers, critics and influences which book in Portuguese literature was “the right book at the right time.” Here's what they answered:

Lavinia Braniște: I read right now “This girl is taken!” by Yara Nakahanda Monteiro (translated by Iolanda Vasile and published at Alice Books). It is a recent appearance, which will be launched at the fair on Thursday. It is the story of a young Angolese in Portugal, who never knew his mother and who starts on a trip to discover the roots and his own family.

Ioana Pîrvulescu: In 1981, in Romania, political censorship worked on any book, even in translations. That is why readers – among them and I, who were a student at Letters – were accustomed to looking for the “lizards” of the novels, that is, the political understandings, and to recognize without mistake the situations or moods of the reality of the moment. They “avenge” us from what we had to endure, they helped us to resist. Such a book was for me “what Molero says”, by Dinis Machado, an esopic Roman about the guilt that we all felt, those who lived from “Iron Curtain”.

Ruxandra Gîdei (4Far15): José Eduardo Angalusa, a Portuguese language writer from Angola, I recently discovered with the “General Forget Theory”. It is a book about the tumultuous and incomplete transition of Angola to an independent state, lived in isolation by an atypical protagonist. Through the testimonies of some very diverse characters, the novel reminds us how the promise of systemic change is often a coat that the old elites dress in capturing power and capital. Literature helps me read the world around me, so I feel that I found this book in time, in times of electoral anxiety.

Ciprian Mihali: I recommend “Essay on blindness” by José Saramago. And I would not leave the “essay on lucidity” on the outside, by the same author.

Radu Vancu: The Portuguese book that came exactly when it was supposed to be Fernando Pessoa's “restlessness” – I read this journal of a hypnotic intensity just before I started my journal. And it is very likely that he played a catalytic role when I decided to start holding a journal. And the Portuguese book that, as wonderful, did not come when it was, is “you died” by Jose Peixoto-I would need it when my dad died, he appeared 15 years later. But it's just as healing. Peixoto will be in Bookfest, in a Saturday discussion with Bogdan-Alexandru Stănescu-I urge as many people to go to see these two great writers.

Mihai Iovănel: “History of the siege of Lisbon” by José Saramago (trad. Mioara Caragea), read at 19-20 years because it makes the work related to books seem more glam (special number) than is actually.