The Library of New Beginnings by Michiko Aoyama
The Japanese novel about the power of books that is captivating the world. More than 300,000 copies sold. A book can change your life
In the heart of Tokyo there is a small library where Mrs. Komachi works. She types on her computer at breakneck speed and in her spare moments creates small felt figures that she then gives to the most special visitors, to whom she asks: “What are you looking for?” ». The answer seems simple, but Mrs. Komachi is not like other librarians. She can guess what the dreams, desires and regrets of the person she listens to are.
And this is how a recommendation from you can change their lives. You just need to indulge in reading an unexpected book.
The Library of New Beginnings is an ode to the power of books that teaches us that, by listening with the heart and extending a helping hand, we can all achieve our dreams.
The bookstore on the hill, published on January 26 by Lumen, is the inspiring story of a bookseller and her bookstore that has become a publishing phenomenon. A memoir personal and endearing that tells the story of an unhappy girl saved by books in a fairy tale setting. The book has been published in Catalan by Edicions 62 with the title The turó bookstore.
«A wonderful and unique book, a memoir, a family poem, but also the story of a mountain village and an adventure novel. […] Read it and recommend it. “I’m sure it will radiate more magic.”
Cristina de Stefano, elle
Fleeing the turmoil of the city, Alba Donati decided to change the course of her life and return to her native Lucignana, a town of one hundred and eighty inhabitants in the Tuscan countryside. After launching a campaign crowdfunding and ask for a donation of books from Italian publishers, in 2019 he opened the doors of the Sopra la Penna bookstore. Her day to day passes between reading recommendations, requests and ideas to make that cabin near the forest a unique place where, in addition to the literary novelties that Alba carefully chooses, the visitor is immersed in a universe full of surprises: a bookshelf pirate for forgotten books, socks with quotes Pride and prejudiceEmily Dickinson calendars, or snacks with a tea named after Charlotte Brontë and a jam that tastes like Alice in Wonderland . And around him gravitates another universe: that of clients, friends, helpers, neighbors and family for whom the bookstore on the hill, with its beautiful window to the valley, has become an enormous window to the world.
‘Rialto, 11’, by Belén Rubiano (Asteroid Books)
One day in early autumn 2002, the light in a small, hidden bookstore in the Plaza del Rialto in Seville went out, without noise or hardly any goodbyes, definitively. The founder of it had started selling books ten years earlier in other bookstores, where she learned many things, in addition to her trade. In the succession of experiences that make up these delicious partial memoirs, Rubiano shares with readers the incorruptible vocation that led her to establish herself as a bookseller in a corner of the map. And she does it with humor and with candid sincerity, because except for the satisfaction of working among books and readers, we understand from the beginning that nothing is as she had dreamed and that in the profession there is no shortage of storms, tidal waves and bitter disappointments. But there are also, fortunately, delirious moments, priceless lessons and great joys. Above all, the value of these pages, which the reader will explore between free laughter and the deepest empathy, lies in the vitality and the very personal style with which Rubiano tells us about his particular devotion to books and how one can reach to risk any security to pursue a dream.
‘The Traveling Bookstore’ by Christopher Morley
Prepare to enter a unique world full of charm, where time has stopped: we are in the second decade of the 20th century, in a still rural United States with idyllic landscapes, where old wagons and the newest automobiles coexist; Roger Mifflin, a traveling bookseller who wants to return to Brooklyn to write his memoirs, sells his unique bookstore on wheels (along with his horse and dog) to the already mature Miss Helen McGill, who decides, fed up with the monotony of her life, Go on an adventure and travel the world. From that moment on, encounters and disagreements will occur, and the most entertaining adventures will go hand in hand with the great teachings that books and bookshelves provide. Since this classic of North American literature was published in 1917, many readers have been seduced by its evocative power, by the comforting humor it exudes and, of course, by its attention to small details: these pages smell like loaves of bread. fresh out of the oven; In them you can feel the autumn wind in the birch trees
‘The Haunted Bookstore’, by Christopher Morley
The beloved Roger and Helen Mifflin have stopped touring the fields and towns with their traveling bookstore and have settled in the heart of Brooklyn, as Roger always dreamed. They both run La Librería Encantada, a “parnassus at home” where all kinds of unique characters come from one side or another of New York, including young publicists, German pharmacists and beautiful heiresses; Not to mention his bookseller friends, who gather there every so often to enjoy Helen’s chocolate cake and the incendiary, yet sensible, speeches of great little Roger. It seems that everything is calm in that charming bookstore (pun intended) and in the pleasant life of these unusual characters… but it is not like that: we find ourselves right at the end of the First World War, in the middle of a turbulent time, full of technical advances, contradictory emotions and a lot of suspense. Because, although their rural adventures ended a long time ago, our characters will continue to star in situations as fun as they are bizarre in the big city, a masterfully drawn city, with that touch of refined humor that already captivated the readers of The Traveling Bookstore.
‘The Bookstore’, by Penelope Fitzgerald (Impedimenta)
“The Bookstore” is a delicate tragicomic adventure, a masterpiece of book entomology. Florence Green lives in a tiny Suffolk seaside town that in 1959 is literally cut off from the world, and is characterized precisely by “what she doesn’t have.” Florence decides to open a small bookstore, which will be the first in the town. She thus acquires a building that has been abandoned for years, eaten away by humidity and that even has its own capricious poltergeist. But she will soon encounter the silent resistance of the living forces of the town that, in a courteous but implacable way, will begin to corner her. Florence will then be forced to hire a ten-year-old girl as her assistant, in fact the only one who does not dream of sabotaging her business. When someone suggests that she put the controversial Olympia Press edition of Nabokov’s “Lolita” on sale, a subtle but devastating earthquake is triggered in the town.
‘Our Riches’, by Kaouther Adimi (Asteroid Books)
In 1935, Edmond Charlot, a twenty-year-old young man, returned to Algiers from Paris with the idea of founding a bookstore and a publishing house. His tiny bookstore, which he calls The True Riches, becomes a meeting place for aspiring writers and figures such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and André Gide. There he also published the first text by an unknown author: Albert Camus. But Charlot ignores that dedicating his life to books will not exempt him from being shaken by the misfortunes of history: on the eve of the Second World War, a revolt is about to break out in Algeria.
In 2017, Ryad is the same age as Charlot when he started, but he is not interested in literature. An engineering student in Paris, he accepts the assignment to empty and repaint a dusty Algerian bookstore that its owner wants to convert into a bakery.
In Our richesKaouther Adimi mixes past and present, reality and fiction, to tell us about the history of Algeria and, above all, about a profession that cannot be understood without the love of books and that is fundamental for the survival of literature
‘Fahrenheit 451’, by Ray Bradbury (Debolsillo)
In a dark and disturbing future, Montag is part of a strange fire brigade whose mission is not to put out fires, but to produce them to burn books. And in his world reading is prohibited, because what they want to suppress is the ability to think. Once Montag understands this, alerted by a secret organization dedicated to memorizing entire volumes, he will know that the time has come to choose between obedience and rebellion. In this new translation, which better than ever captures the full force of the original, Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopia continues to alert us to the worst facets of modern conformity.
’84, Charing Cross Road’, by Helene Hanff (Anagram)
In October 1949, Helene Hanff, an unknown young writer, sends a letter from New York to Marks & Co., the bookstore located at 84 Charing Cross Road, London. Passionate, manic, extravagant and often penniless, Miss Hanff demands almost unfindable volumes from the bookseller Frank Doel that will quench her insatiable thirst for discovery. Twenty years later, they continue to write to each other, and the familiarity has blossomed into an almost loving intimacy. This eccentric and charming correspondence is a small gem that evokes, with infinite delicacy, the place that books… and bookstores occupy in our lives. 84, Charing Cross Road went almost unnoticed at the time of its publication, but since the 1970s it has become a true cult book on both sides of the Atlantic.
