Archive · Chronicle · Memory Anteprima Turin, Italia
TORINOMIA
en

Turin International Book Fair

Publishing fair born in Turin in 1988, held at Lingotto since 1993: Italy's largest book event, every year in May.

La home page di salonelibro.it, 25 settembre 2026
The homepage of salonelibro.it on 25 September 2026

The Turin International Book Fair (Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino) is the publishing fair that every May brings together in Turin publishers, authors, booksellers, agents and readers; since 1993 it has been held at Lingotto Fiere, in the former Lingotto plant[1]. The organisers describe it as Italy's most important publishing event and one of the leading ones in Europe[2]. The fair is today a project of the Associazione Torino, la Città del Libro, the Circolo dei lettori Foundation and the Fondazione per la Cultura Torino, with the support of the Piedmont Region and the City of Turin[3].

Origins: 1988

The idea came from the entrepreneur Guido Accornero[2], who developed it together with the bookseller Angelo Pezzana[1]. The first edition opened in May 1988 at the Torino Esposizioni complex, with more than 500 exhibitors and about one hundred thousand visitors[1]. The Nobel-winning poet Joseph Brodsky called the event "a brilliant idea with a touch of madness"[1]. In 1993 the fair moved to the Lingotto Fiere halls, which still host it today[1].

The Fondazione per il Libro (1994-2017)

In 1994 the Piedmont Region, the Province of Turin (today the Metropolitan City) and the City of Turin set up the Fondazione per il Libro, la Musica e la Cultura, which ran the event for twenty-three years[2]. In 2004 the Salone Off was launched, a programme of events spread across the city's districts and the towns of the province[1].

In 2017 the Foundation fell into crisis over accumulated debts and delays in public funding, was put into liquidation, and the fair risked closing for good[2]. That same year the Italian Publishers Association backed a rival fair in Milan, Tempo di Libri[1]. From 2017 direction of the fair was entrusted to the writer Nicola Lagioia[4].

The auction of the brand and the new management

On 14 December 2018 the fair's brand was put up for auction[2]. It was bought for 600,000 euros, against a starting price of 385,000, by the Associazione Torino, la Città del Libro, made up of eight of the Foundation's suppliers who were among its creditors; in 2009 the same brand had been valued at 1.8 million euros[5]. In 2019 Salone Libro srl was formed, a company bringing together some thirty firms to run the event; the brand was placed at the disposal of the Region and the City, with the Circolo dei lettori Foundation acting as a supporting body[2].

The Altaforte affair (2019)

The 2019 edition was marked by the presence among the exhibitors of Altaforte, a publishing house close to CasaPound. On 7 May the Region's president Sergio Chiamparino and the mayor Chiara Appendino filed a complaint for the promotion of fascism against the publisher Francesco Polacchi, a CasaPound figure; the next day the City and the Region asked for the contract to be terminated, arguing that the publisher's presence was causing "serious damage to the image of the event and of the city", and on 9 May the organising bodies did so[6]. Halina Birenbaum, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps who had cancelled her appearance in protest, was given the task of opening the fair; the cartoonist Zerocalcare confirmed his attendance on Twitter, writing: "The Nazis are staying home, so see you at the Turin book fair!"[6]. That year there were 148,034 visitors, around four thousand more than in 2018, and on the Saturday admissions were closed once capacity was reached[7].

Pandemic and recovery

In 2020 the in-person edition at Lingotto was postponed because of the coronavirus and replaced, from 14 to 17 May, by the Salone del Libro Extra, a series of streamed events on the fair's channels[8][1]. The announcement read: "Despite everything, at some point you have to react. So the fair will not take place physically, but we will have a special edition"[8]. After the May 2021 edition was also cancelled, a special edition was held that October; in May 2022 attendance reached 168,732, around twenty thousand more than in 2019, and the Saturday recorded the highest turnout in the fair's history[9].

Annalena Benini's directorship

In April 2023, after months of negotiations among the bodies involved and the withdrawal of Paolo Giordano's candidacy, the journalist and writer Annalena Benini was appointed director for a three-year term starting in 2024[4]. Her first edition, from 9 to 13 May 2024, took the title "Vita immaginaria" ("Imaginary Life") from a book by Natalia Ginzburg and welcomed 28,000 students and teachers in the Bookstock area, while the Salone Off marked its twentieth anniversary with 650 events[10]. Estimated visitors numbered about 222,000, against 215,000 in 2023[11]. In 2025 ("Le parole tra noi leggere", 15-19 May, with the Netherlands and the Campania region as guests of honour) attendance rose to 231,000, with 2,647 events and about 800,000 rides on the metro during the fair's days[12].

The thirty-eighth edition, from 14 to 18 May 2026 and the third directed by Benini, was titled "Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini" ("The World Saved by Kids"), after the collection by Elsa Morante, with Greece as guest country and Umbria as guest region. It recorded 254,000 visitors, including 34,500 students and school escorts, and 49% of visitors were under 35[13]. Guests included Bernie Sanders, Zadie Smith, Emmanuel Carrère, László Krasznahorkai and David Grossman, and among the Italians Alessandro Baricco and Alessandro Barbero; the Rights Centre, devoted to the buying and selling of rights, hosted more than 4,000 meetings among professionals from 39 countries, and the Salone Off topped 1,100 events in about 400 venues across Turin and Piedmont[13].

Today

The official website, published by the Associazione Torino, la Città del Libro and by Salone Libro srl, presents the programme and sections for visitors, exhibitors, schools and professionals, including the Rights Centre[14]. Leading partners include Intesa Sanpaolo, Esselunga and Rai[3]. The thirty-ninth edition is scheduled for 13 to 17 May 2027, with Catalan literature as guest of honour and Lazio as guest region[13].

Pages linking here

Timeline

  • — Portici di Carta returns to Turin, from 10 to 11 October, for its 19th edition: two kilometres of bookshops along the arcades between piazza Castello and Porta Nuova, with 71 bookshops, 56 publishing houses and more than a hundred book-related events. → TorinoOggi ANSA Piemonte

Related articles: Piero Fassino

Sources

  1. Quotidiano Piemontese
  2. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino
  3. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino
  4. Il Post — 3 April 2023
  5. Il Post — 2 October 2020
  6. Il Post — 9 May 2019
  7. Il Post — 14 May 2019
  8. Il Post — 7 May 2020
  9. Il Post — 23 May 2022
  10. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino
  11. Sky TG24 — 13 May 2024
  12. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino
  13. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino
  14. Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino

Report a mistake.