The International Book Fair, Svět knihy, kicked off yesterday at the Prague-Holešovice Exhibition Centre, as the most important publishing event in the Czech Republic, now in its thirty-first year.
This year again, the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague participated in the event with its own stand, special guests, a program of Italian micro-lessons for adults and children, and workshops for younger visitors.
The Italian session was opened by Dario Ferrari, award-winning author of the novel La pausa è finita, who discussed his work as a writer and the book’s key themes with literary critic Olga Pavlová.
The keynote speaker of the day was Beatrice Salvioni, who, together with Marialuisa Pappalardo, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, presented her two novels translated into Czech, La Malnata and Malacarne, in the Seifert Room
The 2026 Svět knihy Praha is held under the patronage of the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, and focuses on History and Europe, both expressed in accordance with the famous quote by Milan Kundera chosen as the event’s motto: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
Director Pappalardo said: “The Svět knihy International Book Fair reaffirms its status as an unmissable event in the Czech Republic’s cultural scenario, which is undoubtedly a particularly lively context rich in opportunities and food for thought. The Institute is participating again this year with great enthusiasm, amply rewarded by the public success. Czech readers, in fact, love Italian writers, and we are here for them, too, so as to shine a spotlight on the latest developments in the Italian literary and publishing scene and bring them even closer to our language.”
