Budapest Book Week to Feature over 540 New Publications

The 97th Budapest Book Week will feature 540 newly published books, 204 stalls and 104 programs between June 11-14 in downtown Budapest, in Vörösmarty Square, Vigadó Square and the Danube Corso, organizers told a press conference on Thursday.

"The event will be opened by David Szalay, the English writer of Hungarian descent who won the Booker Prize last year; his award-winning book, Flesh, will be published in Hungarian for Book Week. This year’s event is the first we have organised without state funding. Despite the difficulties, the Hungarian book industry is holding its own," Katalin Gál, the president of the organizing Hungarian Publishers and Booksellers Association, said.

A five-member expert jury has selected the best-crafted Hungarian books of the past year, she added. In the literature category, the Beautiful Hungarian Book 2025 award was adjudicated to Magvető Publishing’s volume 'A stockholmi beszéd' ('The Stockholm Speech'), featuring last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature laureate László Krasznahorkai’s acceptance speech, jury chair Emese Révész pointed out.

She emphasised that these meticulously crafted books were produced despite the unpredictability of cultural funding; 51 publishers and cultural institutions competed with publications released last year, submitting a total of 106 volumes across seven categories. "These books are becoming increasingly expensive due to funding costs, so they are increasingly regarded as luxury items, even though their very purpose is to serve as a bridge between visual culture and literature," Emese Révész noted.