MONTREAL – The 36th edition of the Salon du Livre de Montreal is in full swing, but unless you have children, don’t expect a whole lot of books in English.
“There’s not a lot,” said Melissa Murphy, a Concordia University student who was shopping for an adolescent relative. “There were books I feel like I would be interested in, but there was no translation.”
Scholastic Publishers seems to corner the market on English books at the fair, a strategic decision the imprint made aimed at a young demographic.
“We bring English because we know there’s a market for English customers,” said Chantale Lalonde, the vice president of Scholastic’s French division. “It could be a francophone wanting to learn English, or an anglophone who wants to read in English.”
She said in the early days of the fair, it appeared that English books were stigmatized, but that attitude is gradually softening.
“Why the anglophone publishers don’t come to Montreal is a mystery to me.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the wildly popular ‘Eat Pray Love’ is promoting the French translation of The Signature of All Things.
The book fair, which is expected to draw more than 200,000 people total, is a destination event for North America’s francophiles – especially if they have children.
“I live in New York, we don’t have any French library or French books,” said Pauline Levy, who was shopping with her son. “So I come here to for the shopping.”
The fair runs through Monday.
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