France to be guest of honour at New Delhi World Book Fair 2022

France will be the guest of honour at the New Delhi World Book Fair in January 2022,announced France Ambassador to India,Emmanuel Lenain on Friday as part of a reciprocal invitation as New Delhi is the guest of honour this year at Livre Paris(Paris Book Fair).

Leading and emerging Indian authors will be invited to Paris to meet readers,while publishing industry professionals will enhance cooperation between France and India in this area during networking events.

Commending the invitation,Lenain said,'Having India as the Guest of Honour at Livre Paris will boost translations and the publication of Indian books by French publishers as well as the dynamic network of the French and Indian publishing industries."

In a special ceremony at Jaipur Book Mark,the Ambassador also conferred the 2020 Romain Rolland Book Prize along with Leila Slimani,novelist and President Emmanuel Macron's Envoy for Francophon Affairs.

Awarded annually to the best translation of a French title into any Indian language(including English), the prize this year went to the first three albums of the Asterix series,Asterix and the Golden Sickle,Asterix and the Goths and Asterix of Gladiator translated into Hindi by Dipa Chaudhuri and Puneet Gupta and published by Om books.

Lauding the winners,Lenain said,"Conveying humour and wordplays from a different language and culture is no mean feat.The translators have done an outstanding job of contextualising these-including the characters names-while staying true to their original meaning.It is amazing to have such glimpses from French heritage and history available to Hindi readers.