
Browse
Love Letters to Bookshops Around the World
Pushkin Press
Published on 6. October 2016
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-78227-212-0 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
<b>A celebration of bookshops around the world, by an award-winning cast of writers including Ali Smith, Pankaj Mishra, Elif Shafak and Daniel Kehlmann</b>
In <i>Browse</i> Henry Hitchings asks fifteen writers from around the world to consider the bookshops that have shaped them; each conjures a specific time and place.</br>
<b>Ali Smith</b> chronicles the secrets and personal stories hidden within the pages of secondhand books; <b>Alaa Al Aswany</b> tells of the Cairo bookshop where revolutionaries gathered during the 2011 uprisings; <b>Elif Shafak</b> evokes the bookstores of Istanbul, their chaos and diversity, their aroma of tobacco and coffee. <b>Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor</b> recalls the quandary of being asked to choose just one book at a favourite childhood store in Nairobi, while <b>Iain Sinclair</b> shares his grief on witnessing a beloved old haunt close down. Others explore bookshops they have stumbled upon, adored and become addicted to, from London to Bogota.</br>
These inquisitive, enchanting pieces are a collective celebration of bookshops - for anyone who has ever fallen under their spell.
In <i>Browse</i> Henry Hitchings asks fifteen writers from around the world to consider the bookshops that have shaped them; each conjures a specific time and place.</br>
<b>Ali Smith</b> chronicles the secrets and personal stories hidden within the pages of secondhand books; <b>Alaa Al Aswany</b> tells of the Cairo bookshop where revolutionaries gathered during the 2011 uprisings; <b>Elif Shafak</b> evokes the bookstores of Istanbul, their chaos and diversity, their aroma of tobacco and coffee. <b>Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor</b> recalls the quandary of being asked to choose just one book at a favourite childhood store in Nairobi, while <b>Iain Sinclair</b> shares his grief on witnessing a beloved old haunt close down. Others explore bookshops they have stumbled upon, adored and become addicted to, from London to Bogota.</br>
These inquisitive, enchanting pieces are a collective celebration of bookshops - for anyone who has ever fallen under their spell.
Reviews / Votes
All these writers convey the magic of bookshops, while also making their vulnerability in recent times a recurrent theme * Guardian * If you have ever lost yourself in a bookshop, felt the world fall away as you took a book off the shelves, this spell-binding collection will carry you off to shops near, far, lost and imagined * Mail on Sunday * Everywhere bookshops are fast disappearing. Sixteen writers from around the world remind us why we should cherish them at all costs * Spectator * Lives up to its inviting title * Times Literary Supplement * Very worthwhile but not too worthy, this is a timely call to arms * Monocle * In celebrating bookshops, Browse heralds humanity, with all its glorious eccentricities * Country Life * A book guaranteed to reawaken anyone's passion for all things bookish * Storiesfromthecity.com * A book for all those who love books and the shops that sell them * The Northern Review of Books * I advise you to pick up this book as soon as you can * Always Trust in Books (blog) * Browse is compulsive reading, offering unusual insights into the role bookshops play in our lives * The Bay *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78227-212-0 (9781782272120)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
11/2018
Pushkin Press
€13.00
Article is exhausted; no reprint
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E-Book
10/2016
Pushkin Press
€9.59
Available for download
Persons
Henry Hitchings is an award-winning writer, reviewer and critic. He has written for the Guardian, London Review of Books, TLS, Financial Times and New Statesman, and is currently the Evening Standard's theatre critic. He is the author of several acclaimed books on language, literature and culture, including Dr Johnson's Dictionary, How to Really Talk About Books You Haven't Read and The Language Wars. In 2008, he was shortlisted for the title of Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and in the same year his book The Secret Life of Words won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award.
Content
C o n t e n t s
Introduction: A Place to Pause
Henry Hitchings
Bookshop Time
Ali Smith
Something that Doesn't Exist
Andrey Kurkov
The Pillars of Hercules
Ian Sansom
A Tale of Two Bookshops
Juan Gabriel Vasquez
Leitner and I
Sasa Stanisic
All that Offers a Happy Ending Is a Fairy Tale
Yiyun Li
If You Wound a Snake...
Alaa Al Aswany
Desiderium: The Accidental Bookshop of Nairobi
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Snow Day
Michael Dirda
Dussmann: A Conversation
Daniel Kehlmann
La Palmaverde
Stefano Benni
A Bookshop in the Age of Progress
Pankaj Mishra
Intimacy
Dorthe Nors
Bohemia Road
Iain Sinclair
My Homeland Is Storyland
Elif Shafak
Writers' Biographies
Translators' Biographies
Introduction: A Place to Pause
Henry Hitchings
Bookshop Time
Ali Smith
Something that Doesn't Exist
Andrey Kurkov
The Pillars of Hercules
Ian Sansom
A Tale of Two Bookshops
Juan Gabriel Vasquez
Leitner and I
Sasa Stanisic
All that Offers a Happy Ending Is a Fairy Tale
Yiyun Li
If You Wound a Snake...
Alaa Al Aswany
Desiderium: The Accidental Bookshop of Nairobi
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Snow Day
Michael Dirda
Dussmann: A Conversation
Daniel Kehlmann
La Palmaverde
Stefano Benni
A Bookshop in the Age of Progress
Pankaj Mishra
Intimacy
Dorthe Nors
Bohemia Road
Iain Sinclair
My Homeland Is Storyland
Elif Shafak
Writers' Biographies
Translators' Biographies