RIYADH: Although the Riyadh International Book Fair was honoring Brazil and its rich literary tradition, attendees seemed interested in learning more about football greats like Ronaldo than literary great Coelho.

“The book fair has almost come to an end and I haven’t received any questions about Brazilian literature, or even the country’s general culture,” quipped one official of the Brazilian Embassy.

The official seemed to give in to the public’s demand for information about one of Brazil’s most popular cultural export: Footballers.

“Since many people love football, on the last day of the book fair we will distribute free CDs about Brazil that include football information. We will have football banners and pictures of players,” he said.

Some visitors blame the organizers of the fair, claiming that they didn’t do enough to highlight Brazilian literature.

“I believe that we were not introduced properly to the Brazilian literature,” said Aisha Jalaluddin, a Jeddah-based writer and educator. “I wish I could see some more examples of Brazilian books besides the ones they showed,” she said.

“All what we saw at the Riyadh book fair was translated works of Brazilian novelists already available here,” said Nora Al-Salem, one of the visitors and an Arabic literature major at King Saud University.

She complained that there were too many biographies of Brazilian writers and not enough of their works. “Where are the works of the Brazilian writers?” she asked.

The works of Paul Coelho were available. Coelho is the author of “The Alchemist,” an allegorical novel that is set in Andalusia and North Africa.

The Brazilian booth at the fair featured Coelho prominently as well as the works of Saudi author Mohammad Al-Aboudi, who has written about Brazil.

Elizabeth Hazen, professor of Brazilian literature who presented a paper at a seminar on the sidelines of the book fair, said: “The book fair was a great opportunity for Brazil to showcase its literature in Saudi Arabia. I saw that the audience was very excited to know more about our literature.”