International Book Fair in Mauritius

The Editions Le printemps held its fourth and final day of the International Book Fair on Sunday at the Rajiv Gandhi Science centre. The event started on Thursday, May 26 to end on Sunday, May 29.

On the last day of the fair, various activities such as face paintings, magic sessions Ashnad Sulliman, the assistant director of ELP said the theme of the book fair is “Lire, c’est un plaisir” and the main aim is to attract a maximum readership for the event and promote the culture of reading in the island. He also added that the bookshop hold the event every two years where international authors and publishing houses such as Harper Collins, Hachette, Jaypee as well as local bookshops such as Editions de L’ocean Indien and Kohinoor was part of the big event.

Sulliman that the International Book fair is being held for the sixth time and it has always been a huge success.

Felix Atioune, the local representative of Pearson said that more and more people are turning to reading since they want to master their skills in language and communication.

He had words of encouragement to young and budding writers.

“The market is small and young writers should veer more towards the international market.”

Halimah Dahmich the representative of Gallimard said that more and more people are intererested in reading .

Dahmich also added that Gallimard caters more to French publishing.

When quizzed on whether they have any plans to provide books at an affordable rate, Dahmich said that it is hard to reduce costs since it involves the work of authors, publishers and editors which doesn’t come cheap.

However, she said that they are doing their best to sell books at an affordable range in such fair.

On Saturday, the former President of the Republic Cassam Uteem launched the book ‘L’an Prochain à Diego Garcia’ authored by Jean Claude de L’estrac.