The 39^th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2020) is a dream come true for book lovers. After months spent away from events, entering Expo Centre Sharjah is like stepping into a wonderland with millions of books on display for sale.

This year a special category of books under ‘Award Winners and Bestsellers’, brought to SIBF 2020 by top English-language publishers from the USA, UK and Canada.

Hall No. 5 is where you will find the stalls selling a wide variety of award-winning titles. From this year’s Booker Prize shortlisted Burnt Sugar by Dubai-based Avni Joshi and last year’s Booker winner The Testament by Margaret Atwood, to many works by 1988 Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz – Sugar Street, Palace of desire, Palace Wall, Miramar and The Journey of Ibn Fattouma, the choice is vast.

Two-time Booker winner Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up and Wolf Hall are displayed prominently, while The Parisian by Isabella Hammad, who won the 2019 O Henry Prize and was nominated for the 2019 National Book Award, had to be replaced more than once on the shelves as copies were picked up very quickly.

American-Libyan author Hisham Matar’sIn the Country of Men which was nominated for the 2006 Booker Prize, appeared to be equally popular with the fair goers. It won the 2007 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and a host of international literary prizes. The book was also nominated for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award in the U.S and won the 2007 Arab American Book Award.

Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, is represented by Snow, AStrangeness in My Mind, Silent House, Istanbul: Memories and the City, as well as his hugely popular My Name is Red.

One novel which is flying off the shelves is De Niro’s Game, the debut novel by Lebanese-Canadian writer RawiHage, which won a pile of awards in 2006 including the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, the McAuslan First Book Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award.

The perennial bestseller however remains Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is proving to be especially popular among a new generation of readers who have been coming to the fair to discover his unique magical realism style of writing.

At SIBF 2020, you can search for all of these great titles. It is a unique opportunity to browse through these and other great classics over the remaining days of the book fair.  Strict precautionary measures to ensure the safety of visitors to the fair is being observed in line with UAE government’s efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19. Those interested in buying their favourite titles must pre-book to visit at registration.sibf.com.