Boris Johnson presented a book: the 33-th Book Forum is underway in Lviv

The 33-th Lviv International BookForum is underway in Lviv. You can attend festival events and buy interesting books through 13 September inclusive.

Within the Lviv International BookForum, 125 events are planned. Organizers reported this.

What is known about this year’s festival

In particular, there are book presentations, discussions, autograph sessions, poetry readings, meetings with authors, and exhibitions.

This year the BookForum program was divided into eight thematic clusters:

“Fantastic Conversation”;

“Translation as a Practice of the Future”;

“A New Measurement of the World”;

“Poetic”;

“Professional”;

“Historical”;

“War Literature”;

“Photobooks.”

The focus theme of the 33-th festival is “The Responsibility of Literature.”

During these days in Lviv at the Palace of Arts, 333 speakers will perform, including Charlotte Higgins, Julian Barnes, Marci Shore, Karl Schlögel, Daniel Kehlmann, Mathias Énard, Lea Ypi, Kateryna Kalytyko, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Serhiy Zhadan, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Anna Groover.

You can view the detailed festival program here.

Interestingly, the “Publishers’ Forum” runs BookForum — the largest literary festival in Ukraine, which for more than 30 years has brought together Ukrainian and foreign authors, publishers, translators, cultural managers, and readers. The organization implements cultural projects aimed at promoting reading, developing the book market, and international cultural cooperation.

Which book did Boris Johnson present

On 11 September at the Lviv Palace of Arts, former British prime minister Boris Johnson presented the Ukrainian edition of his memoirs “No Chains.”

In the book the author, through the prism of his own political and managerial experience, tells about the events that shaped contemporary British history. He also recalls his years as Mayor of London, his period as prime minister, Brexit, the parliamentary elections of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as difficult international and domestic political negotiations.

For Ukrainian readers the edition has special significance also because of the Ukrainian–British context. Boris Johnson was one of the most consistent supporters of Ukraine among British politicians, particularly after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian edition of “No Chains” contains a foreword by Valerii Zaluzhnyi — Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.