More than 400 youngsters began lining up at 8 a.m. and remained in line until noon as the heat descended upon the Retiro park in Madrid, Spain. They weren’t waiting for some concert or latest video game on sale. Instead, they were on line to meet one of more than 1,800 authors who were signing books at Madrid’s historic book fair, La Feria del Libro de Madrid, in late spring from May 31 until June 16.

“We are super happy to be able to have the success that we have had. The book has returned, and the people are very happy,” the fair’s director Manuel Gil told me in Spanish with a contagious passion. “The weight of paper is important, and, in the end, people want something physical, and they want that direct relationship with the author.”

As an author myself, with my own novel, “NIÑA DUENDE: UN VIAJE DEL ESPÍRITU,” translated to Spanish and with me on tour through Spain this past spring, I was delighted to see a level of passion and interest for books and authors that I had not seen before. As I walked by 361 booths, casetas, in Madrid’s beautiful and large El Retiro park, I was amazed to see so many people waiting in line, in the bright sun, for hours to meet with authors.  I was so taken aback, that I even asked people what all the hubbub was all about. It must have been for some latest technology, I briefly thought, as I stood near a big air-conditioned tent that housed Samsung.

In truth, the lines were a testament to the success of a book fair that dates back to 1933 and most recently weathered Spain’s economic crisis.  A total of 2.3 million people attended with a sale of 550,000 books, valuing 10 million euros, a 14% increase from last year’s fair. Gil gave credit to this year’s success to a much improved economy, good weather (no rain), highly-effective online marketing and communication tools, and to cultural programming that included more than 300 activities such as gatherings (with unique music and entertainment), conferences, workshops and roundtables. The fair’s success could also be attributed to its long tradition of entire families attending La Feria, year after year, enjoying a special day in the park inside this great world of books.

An International Push

Despite its large number of attendees – much more than Bogota’s 605,000, Guadalajara’s 818,810, and Buenos Aires’s 1.18 million – Spain’s book fair has remained, for the most part, a secret in the international arena. Yet this is something that Gil is pushing to change. “We are the only country whose fair is not international for Spanish-speaking books,” he said. “We are working on converting it into an international fair.”

In effort to do exactly this, La Feria has invited a host country from Latin American every year during the past few years. This year was the Dominican Republic’s turn to bring its rich literary culture to Spain, in addition to its music, dance and so much more. Gil described this island’s contribution as “spectacular” and went on to emphasize how much color the Dominicans brought to La Feria.

A Cuban American Author

Since Spanish publishers represent such a great variety of Hispanic literature from the Americas, it seems only natural for La Feria to celebrate Hispanic literature and culture beyond Spain. One of numerous authors who came from abroad was Frederick A. de Armas, who was represented by Editorial Verbum, a Spanish publisher.  Armas, a Cuban-American author who works as an Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor in Romance Language and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago, came to Spain’s fair for the second time this year, with his second novel, “SINFONÍA SALVAJE.”

“It was a great experience,” he said of La Feria. “I love Madrid. I love the fair. It’s so beautiful and there’s a sense of a lively community. The people actually come out and look at books at a time when fewer people are interested in the material object. This gives me hope that the physical book is not going to disappear.”

De Armas began writing the first of his two novels about a dozen years ago after his mother, who soon died, left him about 30 pages of a novel she had begun in Cuba in the 1950s. “These pages reminded me of my childhood in Cuba, and out of the pages, I had conversations with my late-mother, and I wrote my first novel,” he said. “She was a strong woman, a feminist of her time, and I tried to include her ideology and way of being. I used her ideas and the characters that she had in her novel, and I came up with a plot and specific time frame.”

The Cuban American professor decided to place his first novel, “EL ABRA DEL YUMURÍ,” in the time period shortly before Fidel Castro took over Cuba. Through mysterious events, it attempts to capture the tension that exists for his characters who are part of an elite and bourgeoisie class that has to deal with the violence and uncertainty of that time. His current novel, “SINFONÍA SALVAJE,” takes place six months after Castro is in power and focuses on how these same characters struggle in a world that seems to be leaving them behind.

De Armas was one of a number of authors who came from afar, and offered an international flavor sought out by Gil, La Feria’s director. But this year’s fair also placed a strong emphasis on women (Gil has made women the focus during these past years, saying it’s about time, given that they represent a majority in the publishing world and the fair’s attendees) and made a strong commitment to being more sustainable, inclusive and as technologically-advanced as ever.

My Journey With Duende

While I attended Madrid’s book fair – and intend to share my book there next year – I went to Spain, the country of my childhood, to present my novel, “NIÑA DUENDE: UN VIAJE DEL ESPÍRITU,” to audiences throughout the country.  I was fortunate to offer my first presentation with a local Flamenco guitarist, Javier Romanos, right there where La Feria took place, in the park’s Biblioteca Pública Municipal Eugenio Trías-Casa de Fieras to an audience of 30-plus on a Sunday early afternoon.

Feria goers walking by were enticed by the sound of Romanos strumming his guitar and my novel’s adventures of an 8-year-old girl born on the Mediterranean Sea and named “Duende,” a magical and creative word that the famous Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once described as “the spirit of the earth” one “must awaken in the remotest mansions of the blood.” Those who entered the library, journeyed with me into worlds of gypsies, flamenco, nature spirits (who travel with Duende below the sea), ancient vineyards, and supernatural vines that weave magic and hope into the lives of characters who had long forgotten how to truly live.

That afternoon, I was grateful to share my novel in a place, which for 88 years, has celebrated the magic of books. It was a great beginning to a book tour that included cities like Murcia, Granada and Málaga. I then returned to Madrid for a final presentation with Romanos and his live Flamenco guitar on June 17, a day after La Feria completed its cycle for this year.

La Feria Comes To An End

As all the fair’s 361 casetas closed down, as books were pulled down from their temporary shelves, and the entire feria cleared out of El Retiro as if it had never happened, my trip and my novel’s tour came to an end. I had witnessed so much more than my own journey as an author – I had experienced firsthand a grand celebration of books, of an entire Hispanic literary tradition that reaches across the globe, yet takes place, as it has for 88 years, in this unique park in Spain’s capital. The roots and traditions of La Feria del Libro de Madrid are strong, and, if Gil’s wishes come true, its reach and influences will stretch across the globe, to create a truly spectacular international feria in years to come. •

Author’s bio: Michelle Adam is an experienced writer, teacher, and healer whose articles have appeared in Hispanic Outlook, as well as multiple other publications. Further information about her novel “NIÑA DUENDE: UN VIAJE DEL ESPÍRITU” is available at www.michelleadam.net