Biggest and Smallest Books of the World on Display in Cuba

This will be one of today’s highlights of the fair thanks to the collaboration of the
Peruvian publishing house Los libros más pequeños del mundo (The Smallest Books of the World), which since 2000 has participated in the meeting of the Cuban and universal culture.

The biggest book measuring 3.80x3.50 meters collects valuable thoughts by more than 2,000 of universal figures including Confucius, Mother Teresa de Calcutta, Benjamin Franklin, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Voltaire and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

On the other hand, this year’s smallest editions consist of The Gospel in four volumes, one per 1.5 cm each.

Luis Alberto Ñañez Meza, executive director for Central America and the Caribbean of the Peruvian publishing house told ACN that they brought the biggest book to Havana because they highly appreciate the value of the Cuban people who are in general keen of reading.

Ñañez said that in order to transport the book, they had to take it apart, pack it in
rolls and then bind it again in the site where it will be displayed.

Since its foundation in 1970, the Peruvian publishing house has released 270 titles
selected out of the best of the universal culture. It has representation offices in Spain, Italia, Portugal, United States, Mexico and Argentina, and offers its books in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English.

Among the titles on sale in the Cuban fair are the collection Pensamiento (Thoughts), with texts by Jose Marti, Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos and one of the volumes of Jose Marti’s complete works. The house also brought The Bible and Don Quixote, both illustrated by French Gustave Dore, and The Kamasutra, Hindu.

Ñañez said they will probably take the biggest book to the Dominican Republic book fair later this year.

Walfredo Sanchez, director for technical production of the Cuban Book Institute thanked the Peruvian colleagues for coming to the fair and he explained that the big book will be exhibited in Pavilion I because it was one of the rooms used during the first international book fair held in San Carlos de La Cabaña.