São Paulo – Egypt’s Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing general manager, Sherif Bakr, wants to take Brazilian author Raphael Montes to Egypt. The company, which he runs alongside his sister and CEO, Ranya Bakr, is a family business established 48 years ago that publishes several books by Brazilian authors in the Arab country, including crime novels by Raphael Montes, who has a legion of fans. Adriana Lisboa and Patrícia Mello are other authors the publishing house distributes in Arabic and also have captive readers.
“We have some literary and commercial work, and we started a huge collection of crime novels from all over the world three years ago because we discovered we apparently don´t have crime authors in the Arab world, very few and not so good. And I think one of the reasons is we have enough crime in the news, so nobody can beat them if they start writing,” he said. Bakr said another reason Brazilian books are translated into Arabic is the desire of Egyptian readers to learn more about Brazil and Latin America.
“When you talk about Brazil, people think of football, mainly, maybe coffee, the Amazon, beautiful girls, rainforest, Carnival. These are, like, maybe, the stereotypes and what we think of Brazil,” he said. “So, we tried to introduce more the everyday life, the real life, the people in that modern life, what people do, what they feel, it is always reflected in the books,” he said. Bakr also said there are more similarities between Brazil and Egypt than one could imagine. “I always say that in many of these books, apart from the lots of drinking we don´t have, you could change many names and put Arabic names, and the story would fit,” he said.
The first contacts with works by Latin American authors, mainly Brazilians, were bridged by a German company representing them. It was from that contact Al Arabi got to know the work of Adriana Lisboa (Symphony in White [Sinfonia em Branco], 2013). The list of Brazilians in Al Arabi’s portfolio includes Patrícia Melo, Ana Maria Machado, Antônio Xerxenesky, Tatiana Salem Levy, Leonardo Garzaro, and Raphael Montes, the latter with five books published in Egypt.
The company’s primary market is Egypt, and Saudi Arabia is its second largest. Al Arabi also sells and operates throughout the Arab world. Starting this month, Bakr will participate in fairs and meetings in Frankfurt (Germany), Sharjah (UAE), Morocco, and Algeria, to name a few destinations. The company’s catalog has 2,500 works, most of them by Arab authors, some of them award-winning, and on topics that range from political science to modern history. Like other publishers, not all books are in stock but could be reprinted according to demand.
The process of publishing Brazilian books, said Bakr, is not simple. It is costly because there are few Portuguese-Arabic translators. Also, the Portuguese spoken in Brazil is different from Portugal’s. He explained in Brazil, there are complexities in words and dialogues, including between Brazilian cities, which makes the process as slow as it is expensive. For this reason, translation support programs are essential to help publishers take books by local writers to other countries.
Despite the challenges, Al Arabi’s ambition remains. Ranya Bakr visited São Paulo last year, and Sherif Bakr was at the Rio de Janeiro Book Biennial in September, where he participated in business rounds and visited the show’s exhibition pavilion. Bakr knows Brazil beyond the stereotypes about the country.
In addition to hoping for a visit by Raphael Montes, he hopes to soon have more books by Brazilians on the shelves of Arab bookstores and internet marketplaces, as Al Arabi also sells through e-commerce and e-book versions, in addition to having some audiobook projects.
I went to Rio, and after the discussions and the market I’ve seen, I´m going now to Frankfurt, and I will definitely add more [books]. However, the process takes time to find the right book, the negotiations, the emails, and the contract, and [after that] start the translation. So it´s a long process, it’s on its way, and I´m sure after these visits, there will be more and more Brazilian authors on our list, and more diversified authors as well,” he said.
Contact
Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing
60 El Kasr EL Aini St, 11451, Cairo, Egypt.
Phone: (+202) 27954529/ (+202) 27921943
Fax: (+2) 27947566
http://alarabipublishing.com.eg
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
