EVENTS Turin International Book Fair – Our Future. In the Books

By Ada Treves

The numbers of the Turin International Bookfair are impressive, and the goal of 400,000 visitors seems now possible. The Salone internazionale del Libro di Torino lasts five days, and already in the opening day the trend was clear, the affluence being 6 per cent higher than last year. Pagine Ebraiche, the newspaper of Italian Jewry is present for the fifth year, guest of the organization, as it has been since 2009, when its first number was presented in this same occasion, and distributed in thousands of copies.

The interest is high, and in these first four days hundreds of people have been stopping by, to get to know the journalists of Pagine Ebraiche, that are carrying on their daily work in the middle of the Bookfair, to have a copy of the newspaper, to leave their email, asking for more information. A relationship which has an enormous importance for the journalists of Pagine Ebraiche: knowing who are the readers of the newspaper, which subjects have met the interest of those who want to know more of the life and culture of the Italian Jewish communities gives is a great stimulus to work better and better.

Many are the friends of the newspaper who have come to visit Pagine Ebraiche’s stall, and Elena Pasoli and Roberta Chinni (from left to right in the photograph) have been a particularly nice surprise: Roberta Chinni is well known to all those working in the publishing industry as “the lady of the Bologna Children’s Bookfair”, and Elena Pasoli has the responsibility of that part of the bookfair that is open to the public. In Bologna every year Pagine Ebraiche presents its special pages called “Leggere per crescere” (To read to grow), devoted to children’s literature, and the cooperation with the Bologna Bookfair is becoming stronger every year. And DafDaf, the Jewish paper for kids, has organized a workshop on the last book published by Giuntina for children: showing how perfectly timed was Roberta Chinni’s visit. The Turin International Bookfair and the Bologna Children’s Bookfair coming together, through Pagine Ebraiche.