On a warm spring day in Tehran, against a backdrop of roses, fountains and the snow-capped Alborz mountains, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for what organisers bill as the world’s biggest book fair.
In every direction are colourful literary and academic displays, poetry readings, impromptu book groups, schoolboy choirs singing popular and religious songs, Spider-Man face-painting, living statues, coffee shops and ice cream, and enormous, buzzing crowds of visitors.
There are conscript soldiers, morality police, daring young women with headscarves pulled back almost behind their ears, periodic calls to prayer broadcast from the Mosallah grand mosque (mostly unanswered), and above all, tens of thousands of books of every description, from novels to policy papers, presented on 7,000 stalls and booths by about 3,000 publishers and exhibitors.
