'Guest of Honour'-status at the Frankfurt Book Fair is usually a pretty big deal and, at the least, means a flood of books in translation from the country at the center of things (think Turkey, South Korea, and Iceland, in recent years).
This year's guest of honour is Indonesia, and we already knew Netherland/Flanders was set for 2016 and Georgia for 2018.
Now finally the 2017 gap has been filled too, with the announcement that: Frankfurt to host La Grande Nation.
That would be France,apparently of course.
And while French literature may not seem to need the additional spotlight as much as some of these other countries -- translations from the French continue to lead the way of all languages into English --, forcing them to strut their stuff on the international stage might well be invigorating.
That would be France,