Football fans in Kolkata missed a chance to catch a glimpse of football icon, Lionel Messi, during his December 2025 visit, but with Argentina being the theme country at the ongoing 49th International Kolkata Book Fair, books on Messi and Maradona are selling like hot cakes.
“People come here for football, it is true and we are selling many books related to Messi and Maradona. Apart from that, some people arrived for books on Jorge Luis Borges, our most well-known writer from the 20th century,” said Andrea Rojas, Counsellor, Embassy of Argentina.
The books that sold the most, less than a week into the book fair, were Messi’s autobiography, leaving organisers to collaborate with a local book store to get in more books. However, the deeper connection between Argentina and West Bengal goes beyond football.
“Argentina is not only a city of football. It is a country of literature. Nobel laureates like Jorge Luis Borges, who worked with magical realism,” said Tridip Kumar Chatterjee, General Secretary, Publishers and Booksellers Guild and organiser of the Kolkata International Book Fair.
India’s Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore stayed in Argentina for one and a half months after falling ill while he was on his way to Peru in 1924. “He stayed at a house called Miralrio in Sun Isidro city, which was bought for him by Victoria Ocampo, who was then an upcoming author and essayist, familiar with writings of Rabindranath,” explained Chatterjee, which is why the organisers wanted Argentina to be the theme country this year to commemorate the centenary year which could not happen last year due to certain reasons.
“For us, it is a huge opportunity to showcase that Argentina is much more than football and we share cultural traits between West Bengal, Kolkata and Argentina. For instance, their love for books, their love for literature, there are certain literary figures from the past and we are trying to promote all those aspects that are also well-known," says Rojas.
Among the books at the exhibition, there are several titles on Messi, including his biography. A collection of photographs from Argentina showcases portraits of artists and writers made by Sera Facio, a famous female photographer of the 20th century.
A range of speakers from Argentina are also present at the book fair to deliver lectures on the cultural insights of the country and its people. Argentinian representatives are going the extra mile to also showcase films on different cultural aspects of the country, like the tango dance and writers. A film production between India and Argentina called ‘Thinking of him’, directed by Paolo Caesar, which is about Tagore‘s visit to Argentina and his relationship with Victoria Ocampo, will be screened twice during the book fair.
