Browse : Love Letters to Bookshops Around the World

A cabinet of curiosities, a time machine, a treasure trove - we love bookshops because they possess a unique kind of magic. In Browse Henry Hitchings asks fifteen writers from around the world to reveal their favourite bookshops, each conjuring a specific time and place.Ali Smith chronicles the secrets and personal stories hidden within the pages of secondhand books; Alaa Al Aswany tells of the Cairo bookshop where revolutionaries gathered during the 2011 uprisings; Elif Shafak evokes the bookstores of Istanbul, their chaos and diversity, their aroma of tobacco and coffee. Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor recalls the quandary of choosing just one book at a favourite childhood store in Nairobi, while Iain Sinclair shares his grief on witnessing a beloved old haunt close down. Others explore bookshops they have stumbled upon, adored and become addicted to, from Delhi to Bogotá.These inquisitive, enchanting pieces are a collective celebration of bookshops - for anyone who has ever fallen under their spell.Contributors include:Alaa Al Aswany (Egypt)Stefano Benni (Italy)Michael Dirda (USA)Daniel Kehlmann (Germany)Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine)Yiyun Li (China)Pankaj Mishra (India)Dorthe Nors (Denmark)Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya)Elif Shafak (Turkey)Ian Sansom (UK)Iain Sinclair (UK)Ali Smith (UK)Saša Stanišic (Germany/Bosnia)Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia)

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Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and longtime book columnist for The Washington Post. He was once chosen byWashingtonian Magazine as one of the twenty-five smartest people in our nation’s capital (but, as Michael says, you have to consider the competition). He also writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement;the New York Review of Books and other literary journals. His previous publications include the memoir An Open Book, four collections of essays—Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book, and Classics for Pleasure—and On Conan Doyle, for which he won an Edgar Award. A lifelong Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle fan, he was inducted into The Baker Street Irregulars in 2002. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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4 books
Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair is the award-winning writer of numerous critically acclaimed books on London, including The Last London, Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital and London Overground. He won the Encore Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Downriver. He lives in Hackney, East London.
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6 books
Ian Sansom
Ian Sansom is the author of the Mobile Library and County Guides series of novels. He writes for the , the, and the and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. He lives in County Down.
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8 books
Andrey Kurkov
Born near Leningrad in 1961, Andrey Kurkov was a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenplay writer before becoming a novelist. Death and the Penguin, his first novel to appear in English, was an international bestseller and has been translated into more than thirty languages. In addition to his fiction for adults and children, he has become a commentator and journalist reporting on Ukraine for the international media. He lives in Kiev with his British wife and their three children.
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Browse : Love Letters to Bookshops Around the World

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The Story of Antigone

Ali Smith