Despite the war, the Russian aggression, the massacres and the horror, this year too there will be a Book Festival in Ukraine, obviously in Kyiv. It was announced in recent days: it will be held from 22 to 25 June in the usual site of the Old Arsenale, obviously equipped with a vast air-raid shelter. And it must be said that a book festival in the heart of a war is something unique in Europe and in the world, not only for economic or logistical reasons.
It seems like a challenge, a scandal; it is a form of human resistance against evil, not only a way to reassert the rights of culture but also a truce, and even a moment of celebration, despite everything.
It won’t be a huge demonstration, which is obvious given the enormous difficulties, but that’s not the important thing. However, more than fifty literary events are planned, and if there are no foreign publishers’ stands, local booksellers will take care of it. Yulia Kozlovets, director of the event (which over the years has brought authors such as the Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk or our own Alessandro Baricco to Kyiv) explained to the “Publishers Weekly” the particular scenario developed by looking at the exceptional nature of the moment, at a festival in state of war: the books will therefore be mainly Ukrainian, in an effort to support local publishing houses and literary agents.
But above all, to create a space of peace. «People need a place that is familiar to them – he said -, where they can be with friends, discuss, share experiences in peace. We want to give this opportunity, and we also want to celebrate their courage and resistance. It’s our road to victory.”
It’s not rhetoric. It is, one might say, a good strategy. Last year, at the Bologna children’s book fair, there was the Ukraine stand, but empty, due to Kozlovets’ own decision who wanted to make it the symbol of the aggression suffered by her country.
However, the photo that had traveled the world, so to speak, in 2022, was that of Margaret Atwood at the Canadian peace demonstration, with a yellow and blue flag and a funny cat-shaped headdress. In other words, certainly not a «neither nor» position as many hear, while authors such as Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Svetlana Alexievich.
Olga Tokarczuk, Jonathan Franzen, Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak had signed the Pen club international appeal, obviously condemning the Russian invasion. Not forgetting the intense press conference of
presentation of our Book Fair, in Turin, when Lidia Liberman, an actress born in Kiev, read poems by Ukrainian authors.
Over time, however, the risk of addiction becomes fatal as it is in human affairs, for us who are (relatively) distant and safe; together with that of leaving the intellectual scene to certain ambiguous “pacifists”. Also for this reason the Kyiv festival, with its (crazy?) gamble, is excellent news.