Guest country of the Frankfurt Book Fair: The main thing is Italy

Almost four months will pass before the Frankfurt Book Fair begins and Italy actually appears as the guest country. But the disputes about the associated delegation of writers, about poets invited at state expense and colleagues not officially included, about the composition of podiums or events outside the state program, have already escalated to such an extent that the excitement is unlikely to subside by October. There will be evidence to support the suspicion that a decidedly right-wing government will seize the opportunity to spread Italy’s fame abroad – regardless of the fact that even a right-wing Italian government probably knows that ideas of national importance are unlikely to make much of an impression at a German book fair.