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On the occasion of the 28th Algiers International Book Fair (Sila), the Barzakh publishing house, which is celebrating a quarter of a century of existence, yesterday welcomed the Young Independent on its stand, installed in the central pavilion of the Palais des Expositions des Pins Maritimes. Its co-founder, Sofiane Hadjadj, presented the main new editorial developments and addressed the challenges facing the book industry in Algeria.
The Young Independent : This year marks a special moment for Barzakh. What are the main new features that you are presenting at Sila?
Sofiane Hadjadj : This 28th edition of Sila coincides, precisely, with the 25th anniversary of the publishing house (Barzakh), since we were born in 2000. On this occasion, we have a series of publications, ten titles of which have already been released in recent months. Among them, Hajar Bali’s second novel, Everywhere the same sky, as well as Kaouter Adimi’s new text, Enemy Joy, which is now beginning to be known.
We also published a very important biography, that of Frantz Fanon, produced by the American writer Adam Shatz, A Life in Revolutions, a text which caused a lot of noise! Added to this are other texts, such as an autobiographical book by the historian Malika Rahal, A Thousand Stories Would Tell Mine. She tells the story of her family, her childhood, and how she became interested in the history of Algeria and the War of Liberation, becoming one of the greatest specialists of this period. Without forgetting, of course, Assia Djebar with her unpublished text The Beauty of Joseph.
It should be noted that we are once again releasing Baba Fekrane and other tales of Mohammed Dib. This is a youth section that we had already presented in French, and which we are offering, this time, in Arabic, because we also publish in this language.
With this in mind, we have also published a collection of short stories by Ghizlan Touati and a novel by Khier Chouar, both in Arabic. So yes, a range of varied publications in Arabic and French. It’s a way of showing that the publishing house is still very much present.
How do you assess the current situation of publishing in Algeria?
We often hear that young people don’t read, young people this, young people that… I think, on the contrary, that we have young people who are very interested in books. Furthermore, reading on printed media remains largely favored, even if some wrongly point to a too rapid rise in digital technology. For me, two major problems arise:
The first is the distribution of books, therefore the network of bookstores, because there is a real lack in Algeria. The second concerns public institutions. The State has put in place support mechanisms, but they are not developed enough. We need a stronger commitment to support books, booksellers, authors, publishers… Bookstores have a real need for support today.
That’s to say ?
We live in a country of two million square kilometers, with 46 or 47 million inhabitants. There are large cities, but some, like Oran, only have one bookstore for the entire population. This is not normal! We must encourage distribution, support booksellers and further support the sector.
And this does not require immense resources. There is currently a real need for support for the entire book industry. And this must be done like many countries where support for the sector is massive and constant. We can cite Italy, South Korea and other international models where the sector is very supported.