As part of the 10th Baku International Book Fair, honorary author of the exhibition, Rovshan Abdullaoglu, met with readers.
The writer first provided information about his activities for the past year and spoke about the successful response to his works both within the country and abroad.
Rovshan Abdullaoglu noted he has been more involved in public activities over the past year, emphasizing that he has held meetings on promoting books and ensuring psychological health among children in educational institutions within the framework of the Ministry of Culture’s grant project. Noting that there are innovations in the film industry—he has written a forty-episode film script based on his work This City is Empty—the writer stated that filming is complete and its first chapter is available.
“We also had several activities outside the country: We took part in book-related exhibitions and events. We are considering proposals to make films based on Abaddon and other works we received from foreign countries, and we continue to translate and sell books. I hope that next year we will have the chance to watch the first of the films based on my works on foreign channels.”
During the meeting, the writer also shared with his readers the news that This City is Empty has been translated into seven languages and they brought the thirtieth edition of the book in Azerbaijani to the exhibition.
“This shows that there is interest and love for books in our country. This is a success for Azerbaijani writing. There are no competitors in our field; we are all fighting on the same front. Interest in books is also an indicator of the intellectual level of readers and a great achievement for society. When foreign countries want to translate and publish a work, they pay attention to the level of its reading in their own country.
“A very well-known Canadian publishing house approached it from this perspective and translated and published This City is Empty. They will hold the presentation of my book this year at the Frankfurt International Book Fair. There will also be a signing ceremony. This means that the country’s literature will enter the international arena and, I am sure, will lead the next generations to do great things in this field. There are many young people with potential in our country. A book can change the fate of a country—it can lead a people to either collapse or develop. Whatever we achieve, we accomplish through reading and education. Each of us has benefited from books. We owe our achievements to books,” said Rovshan Abdullaoglu.
According to him, if a writer does not cry when writing his work, the reader will not cry either.
“While I am writing a book, I am influenced by it. I am the first reader of my work. If it satisfies me, if it affects me, it will also affect the reader. A real writer is one who can feel his work, the inner world of each of his characters. If you put yourself in the shoes of those characters and experience their feelings, the work will be beautiful. If I can’t feel the same mood or feel the atmosphere at that moment, I save that part and write another part. However, the unfinished part remains in my mind, and after a while, suddenly ideas arise about how to complete that dialogue. I immediately write these ideas down and work on them later. That is why I do not complete my books sequentially; I create them in parts. When I write a part, I don’t force myself. Sometimes I paint several paintings in parallel. That is, I can work on several works in parallel. In my works, I want to convey to people that there is light in every negative person and darkness in every bright person. A person can turn into an angel or a demon. Therefore, we cannot fully evaluate any person as a being of light or darkness,” the writer said, adding that his main goal is to benefit readers.
During the event, the writer was also presented with an audio format of his works for the visually impaired. Then, a signing ceremony took place that lasted nearly 6 hours.
