The 9th Book Night will be held online for the first time on April 23, and it will feature about 200 programmes, with the opening being broadcast live on state television HRT and social networks.

This year’s Book Night event will be dedicated to the current topic – change. The slogan is “You’re not isolated with a book!”

The event, commemorating World Book and Copyright Day and Croatian Book Day, is jointly organised by the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the National and University Library in Zagreb, the Zagreb City Libraries, the Croatian Publishers’ Reprographic Rights Association – ZANA, the Moderna Vremena books and culture website, the Knjizni Blok association, and the Croatian Association of School Librarians.

The Book Night event will feature nearly 200 programmes by bookshops, second-hand bookshops, libraries, primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, theatres, illustrators, translators, writers and other creatives and institutions that are “friends of books” from all over Croatia.

In its message on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, UNESCO underscores the power of books at a time of isolation, noting that reading is now more important than ever. It calls on readers all over the world to share quotes, poems and messages that symoblise the power of books and encourage reading.