Bangladesh’s National Book Centre, under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, has mounted a showcase at the Frankfurt Book Fair, highlighting works on the thousand-year history and heritage of Bengal, the identity of Muslims in East Bengal and the Bengali nation, the 1971 Liberation War, and the mass uprising of 2024.
The pavilion has drawn steady interest from visitors and publishing professionals alike, according to organisers on site.
This year’s fair — the 77th Frankfurter Buchmesse — ran from Wednesday to Sunday (October 15–19) in Frankfurt, with the Philippines as Guest of Honour.
The organisers confirmed the 2025 dates and edition in advance press material, with the fair positioned as a global marketplace for rights and a festival for readers and authors.
At Bangladesh’s stand, titles on display included Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus’s volumes on Grameen Bank; A.K. Khandker’s memoir “1971: Bhitore Baire”; Imran Akand’s account “Ekjon Abu Saider Gonobhutthan”; Ahmed Faiz’s “Shangbadpatre July Gonobhutthan”; journalist Nurul Kabir’s analysis of the 2024 uprising and its political context; Shibli Azad and Minhajul Islam’s interviews with fifteen coordinators of the movement; Salimullah Khan’s “Swadhinota Byabshay”; and Moidul Hasan’s “Muldhara ’71,” among other works spanning literature, history and contemporary politics.
The Bangladesh stall was formally inaugurated on Wednesday (October 15) by Muhammad Zulqar Nain, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Germany, alongside National Book Centre director and writer Afsana Begum and Professor Faizul Latif Chowdhury, an adviser to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Ambassador Nain presented his credentials in Berlin earlier this year.
On Saturday (October 18), the National Book Centre hosted a seminar in Frankfurt titled “Bangladesh: At a Moment of Renaissance,” featuring UK-based scholar Naomi Hossain, Professor Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Afsana Begum and Ambassador Nain. Hossain is a Global Research Professor in Development Studies at SOAS University of London.
Fair organisers reported broad participation by international exhibitors and strong public turnout over the five-day event, with Germany-based coverage noting more than 1,000 authors, exhibitors from over 90 countries, and crowds exceeding 200,000.
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