BELARUSIAN journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich and British novelist Ian McDonald are some of the star names who will grace this year's Shanghai Book Fair, which opens on August 17.

Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time." She is the first writer from Belarus and also the first journalist to receive the award.

The seven-day book fair, which includes the Shanghai International Literary Week, will host more than 40 writers and poets, Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau announced yesterday.