A Bookshop in Algiers

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A Bookshop in Algiers is a truly delightful read. Kaouther Adimi paid homage not only to Edmond Charlot but also to the art of storytelling, literature, and bookshop as a place of a great importance for local communities, of cultural exchange and freedom of thought. Here, a bookshop is more than just a physical place selling books – it is an idea, a magnet for those who dare to dream.

Those parts narrated by the omniscient group- we are a bigger sort of summing-up -- effective as such, and a useful complement to the other sections, but also somewhat limited. It's a struggle but he reports already in the fall of 1945 that they're: "managing to publish 12 to 15 books a month"; by 1947: "Sales are reaching 100,000, and much more for some titles"; by 1949 Éditions Charlot has flamed out, bankrupt. While sometimes a harrowing story, it's revealing with a little bit of googling just how much literary culture was wrapped up in the little bookshop. This book could lead you down many a French and Algerian literary rabbit holes. This is a fictionalized biography of a real person, Edmond Charlot, a lover of books, who founded a bookstore in Algiers in 1935 when he was 20 years old. He called the bookstore Les Vraies Richesses - Our True Wealth. (Note that another edition in English has the title A Bookstore in Algiers.)

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That is: a store selling new and second-hand books, which is also a lending library, and not just a business but a place where people come to talk and read. Este pequeño universo humano, íntimo y empático emociona con su sencillez, claridad y cercanía; una auténtica declaración de amor a los libros y la literatura. I liked the story. It flowed smoothly although a bit slow at times, but we expect that of a book about a bookstore, don’t we? LOL. The variety in the structure of the chapters keeps it interesting.

Así es como yo concibo mi trabajo. El escritor tiene que escribir, el editor tiene que dar vida a los libros. No veo límites a esta idea. La literatura es demasiado importante como para no dedicarle todo mi tiempo». Adimi gives a sense of the scale of these, and many of the lives affected, but when even a Camus figures as barely more than an incidental character it's hard not to think that (too) much is missing. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. Kaouther Adimi's novel is multilayered in its presentation: there are sections set in 2017, when the tiny storefront -- measuring only some seven by four meters -- has been bought by someone who plans on letting his nephew open a beignet shop in its stead; the engineering student Ryad travels from France to take on the job of clearing out the place and repainting it for the handover, while Abdallah, the longterm caretaker of the place warily watches what happens to the establishment. I try not to give five stars too often. In my eyes, it diminishes the value of the books that truly deserve to be read. I suppose that you could argue that all books deserve to be read. I also suppose that you would probably be right in that argument.

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Charlot was the one who ‘discovered’ and published the first books by Albert Camus and had close literary relationships with other writers of that era such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Andre Gide and Jean Giono. Charlot is portrayed as an idealist, humanist, dreamer, and bibliophile who strongly believed in the power of storytelling as a path to peace and unity.

All along, the Algerian struggle against the French loom over much of what happens -- and then more recent domestic struggles.Kaouther Adimi me transportó desde el primer párrafo a las calles de Argel. Me perdí entre callejones, deambulé por sus recuerdos, me mezclé con sus olores y me enamoré perdidamente. Me enamoré de ese increíble templo, de esa librería llamada ‘Las verdaderas riquezas’. Me enamoré de ese hombre que la creó, de toda la pasión que volcaba en su trabajo y de toda la lucha para que saliera adelante. Still other sections are written in the first-person plural, a communal omniscient narrator observing the situation over the many decades, the voice of the locals in one, describing more generally both the long struggle against the French colonialists and then the near-present-day situation. Later scenes from Charlot's life (i.e. notebooks) include the turning point of Camus' death and the final years of Algeria's battle for independence. Zenginliklerimiz’de üç farklı karakteri ve onların birbiriyle kesişen hikayelerini okuyoruz. Biri Edmond Charlot, diğeri Charlot’nun kitabevinin kütüphaneye dönüştürülmesinin ardından uzun yıllar o kütüphanenin bekçiliği yapan Abdallah ve son olarak kütüphaneyi boşaltacak, temizleyecek ve yerine açılacak çörekçi için (ne kadar da tanıdık!) hazırlayacak olan Ryad. Son iki karakter Cezayir’in yıllar içindeki dönüşümünü göstermek ve biraz da çatışma yaratmak için konulmuş. Bu kısımlar ilginç ve düşündürücü olmakla birlikte biraz daha geliştirilmeye muhtaç, şu haliyle iki karakterin çatışması biraz yarım kalmış ve kitabı da biraz didaktikleştirmiş maalesef.