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A celebration of the greatest kind of shop in the world, by an award-winning cast of writers including Ali Smith, Michael Dirda, Elif Shafak and Daniel Kehlmann.

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. These inquisitive, enchanting pieces are a collective celebration of bookshops - for anyone who has ever fallen under their spell. Contributors include Alaa Al Aswany, Stefano Benni, Michael Dirda, Daniel Kehlmann, Andrey Kurkov, Yiyun Li, Pankaj Mishra, Dorthe Nors, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Elif Shafak, Ian Sansom, Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith, Sasa Stanisic, and Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

A dazzling collection of original essays about the bookshop by fifteen bestselling international authors.

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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 Vásquez

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

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"Lives up to its inviting title." - Times Literary Supplement

"Very worthwhile but not too worthy, this is a timely call to arms." - Monocle
´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

´In celebrating bookshops, Browse heralds humanity, with all its glorious eccentricities.´ - Country Life

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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.

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