Salman Rushdie headlines Brazilian book festival

British-Indian author Salman Rushdie and Chilean writer Isabel Allende are set to bring their celebrity to Brazil's biggest literary festival which started Wednesday.

The event, called Flip and held in the historic seaside town of Paraty south of Rio, each year hosts prestigious writers and book fans.

Rushdie, who wrote "The Satanic Verses," which attracted a fatwah death sentence from Iran for its depiction of Mohammed, was expected to appear on Friday.

Allende, one of South America's best-selling authors, is scheduled to speak to a sold-out crowd on Thursday.

The festival runs to Sunday.