![]() The Book Fair is a very big thing, a very nice job. Next year, which is supposed to be your last year, would you like to continue or return to active journalism, talk show, new book.? When I have the final report, we will see whether we will persevere or correct next year. The other day, the Swedish Embassy told me that the Nordic booth had worked very well. We asked the booths to help us test a new system and now we are waiting for them to tell us what they think. This year we have introduced some changes, those that you don't notice such as the typeface for the signs and others that you do, in the stands, transparent pavilions that have allowed people to see what was going on inside and those of us who were at the events to see what was going on outside. It wasn't easy to set it up in just three months, and even less so with a novice director and a recent pandemic, but the team proved their worth, some of them have been at the fair for almost 30 years, they know it like the back of their hands. The first year I joined in January, and the challenge was to get it off the ground and make it as good as possible. In the end, the organisation is a lot of ironing, that is, a lot of assembly, a lot of water and electricity problems, and a lot of internal relations with the guilds that participate. When you come, in my case as a journalist, working with authors or even as an author to sign, you get a partial idea of what it is like. I must confess that I had an idea far removed from the reality of what it was like to direct the fair. When you entered the competition, what was your challenge, and did you manage it? This was your second edition as director. PHOTO/ATALAYAR/GUILLERMO LÓPEZ - Eva Orúe we do not count those who entered and left because of a storm. The occupancy rate of the pavilions with activity has been much higher than last year's edition and it should be noted that we have discounted the effect of rain, i.e. We don't have data for each stand, but the children's book stands have had fewer visitors because they are more for families, for good weather. ![]() There have been fewer visitors than in other years, perhaps they were discouraged by the rain. In the middle of the fair, what the exhibitors said, curiously enough, was that the rain did not discourage sales and that people were very active in their purchases. I am talking about books, because when it comes to reading, we read more than ever, albeit on screen. These studies say that Spaniards are not great readers, but also that children and teenagers read a lot, and that the percentage of regular readers is growing, albeit little by little. That this is not exactly true is shown by reading studies. Can we interpret that people read more than we say or think? The result is fewer visitors, but many more sales. When the fair is over, there is still work to do. Most of the exhibitors came to empty the stands. ![]() My team was there at 6:00 in the morning to start dismantling I arrived later because I had a medical test. What did you do the next day?īack to the Retiro like a criminal returns to the crime (laughs). in her van.Ī few days ago the 82nd edition of the Madrid Book Fair came to an end, and your second as director. "I am a person who is ambitious just enough and a good conformist," she says, and perhaps that is the secret of the serenity she transmits. And so it has been her professional career, "not at all linear" due to her own character, which has led her to do what she really likes: telling stories. "Journalism is a continuous process of astonishment and learning", she says. She has worked in different media, was a correspondent, among other destinations, in Moscow, where she was able to appreciate "Russian pride", a talk show host, author of several books. Eva Orúe is one of this country's great journalists. This was her second edition after being chosen by the Booksellers' Guild, and there is still another one to come, then "we'll see". Logical, she is the director, the first woman in more than eighty years. Until a few days ago, such tranquillity in this place and in the middle of the Book Fair was unthinkable. She walks calmly to the door of the Eugenio Trías Library in El Retiro, where we have arranged to meet for this interview.
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