Kitabın en güzel yanı Kaouther Adimi’nin arşivleri, kitapları, söyleşileri tarayarak oluşturduğu Charlot’nun kurmaca günlüğü. Bu günlük aracılığıyla 1930’dan 1961’e kadar hem Cezayir’in kültürel ortamı hem yayıncılık dünyasında yaşanan sıkıntılar hem de Cezayir’in bağımsızlaşma sürecinde yaşananlar hakkında bilgi sahibi oluyoruz. Charlot, bastığı kitaplarla yıllar içinde ünlenen bir kitapçoksever. Edebiyatı o kadar seviyor ki başka bir iş düşünemiyor ve bir kitabevi kurmaya karar veriyor. Sonra kitabevine ek olarak beğendiği genç yazarların tanınmasını da sağlayacak bir yayınevi kuruyor. Kitabevinde sanat eserleri de sergiliyor. İlk eserlerini yayımlayarak tanınmasını sağladığı yazarlar arasında Camus, Gide, Kessel var. I really enjoyed the way this book went between these two timelines, whilst also inserting cultural and political turmoil into the shaping of the plot. We saw a very personal insight into part of Algeria’s history, as well as a perspective offering a wider view on this political unrest. All the while not feeling daunting or like it was belittling the reader in anyway. This is a moment in history I don’t know too much about, but I now feel compelled to learn more. Charlot achieved greater fame when he started a publishing house. He published early works by Camus, Rilke, Garcia Lorca and Gertrude Stein. Charlot was daring. He pushed the limits of what could be published. He was imprisoned by the Vichy authorities for a time as a Gaullist and communist sympathizer. An entire press run of one of Lorca’s books was seized and destroyed by police. A Bookshop in Algiers follows two timelines as we see the creation and then ruin of a bookshop that once felt like the heart of so many bibliophiles. Going between the 1930’s-1960’s and present day, we see two different characters and their relationships with books, and how books change them.

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. Charlot had been born in Algeria into one of the original French colonial families. As a Pied-Noir (person of European heritage who was born in Algeria during French rule) there was continual tension with the Algerian people, and his bookshop, and lending library, operated through highly unstable times as the independence movement gained force, leading to the Algerian War of 1954-1962, including specifically the Battle of Algiers. He based himself both in Algeria and in Paris, depending on time's sway. It was as true in 1935 as it is now that’s it's hard to make money with a bookstore. But Charlot was quite an entrepreneur. The bookstore became a cultural center for the city, the largest city in Algeria. It served as a painting and sculpture gallery and he hosted events featuring local and visiting speakers. He started a subscription service where students could rent books rather than buy them. Our Riches" is a fictionalized biography of book publisher Edmond Charlot, a window into mid-Twentieth Century Algerian history, and an expression of love of the written word. At the young age of 20, Charlot opened Les Vraies Richesses (the true wealth) in 1936 in Algiers. It was a small bookstore, lending library, and cultural center where Charlot also published Mediterranean authors. Many of his publications are widely read classics today, especially those written by Albert Camus. Charlot's life is told in brief journal entries from the 1930s to the 1960s, grounded in historical research. The creation of the bookstore and publishing company, a second publishing location in wartime Paris, and Charlot's friendships with the authors are all part of the journal. The modern stream features a young man sent to clean out the bookshop for a new owner who wants to sell sweet treats. The young man does not have a literary bone in his body and as the story progresses, his ignorance becomes palatable and the neighbours of the shops do all they can to foil his efforts to clear out the shop. Their loyalties lie with the old man, Abdallah, who has been working there all his life and it had become his home.

Against this setting Charlot energised the local writing industry, launching many writers. Though avoiding political affiliations, he had been wrongly accused by the Vichy regime of being a Gaullist and communist sympathiser and imprisoned. At other times he sought to mingle with and support leading thinkers and creators, such as Andre Gide and de Saint-Exupery. I read A Bookshop in Algiers thanks to my subscription to Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company's Year of Reading 2020 New Releases.

Pequeñas riquezas es una librería que abre sus puertas a principios del siglo XX con mucha ilusión y con muchas ideas en mente por parte de nuestro personaje. Incluso, con el paso del tiempo decide ser él el que publique algunas obras, algunas de ellas sabiendo que no serían vistas muy bien por la época y la sociedad y otras que serían de grandísimos autores como Albert Camus. Pero como todo negocio, tanto la librería como la editorial pasan por dificultades. Nuestro librero trata a toda costa de salvar su pequeño negocio y para cuando decide jubilarse la librería todavía sigue abierta. This book is a celebration of publishing industry and those who make stories available to the readers. 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. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.Other sections purport to be excerpts from Charlot's notebooks -- his diary -- over the years: first 1935-6, when he has the idea for his publishing house and bookstore and sets them up, and then from later intervals -- 1937 to 1949, and then 1959 to 1961. 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. No obstante, la historia comienza con el fin de la librería, más tarde convertida en biblioteca cuando ya no vende ningún libro y es de alguna manera rescatada por los organismos públicos de Argel. Pero, incluso convertida en biblioteca, el establecimiento no resulta fácil de mantener y al final, termina siendo vendido para convertirse en pastelería, muy a pesar del bibliotecario de ese momento, a quien le duele que la gente parezca haber dejado de interesarse por la literatura.

Estoy absoluta y completamente enamorada del 2bis de la calle Hamami. Siento un flechazo absoluto por el entusiasmo de Edmond Charlot, por su amor a los libros y por fundar 'Las Verdaderas Riquezas', una librería/hogar donde he podido conocer los comienzos de Camus, Gide, Giono, Jules Roy y un montón de autoras y autores más que no he parado de apuntar. Siento que ese pequeño rincón, ya es un poco mío. The store had already long not been a proper bookstore, bought by the government in the 1990s and maintained as a sort of annex to the National Library of Algiers but pretty much forgotten. Already in 1935 the very young literature-loving Charlot has a clear idea of what he wants to create:Our Riches (or A Bookshop in Algiers, as the British title has it ...) is based on the life of Edmond Charlot (1915-2004) and his publishing and bookselling ventures, specifically the small bookshop 'Les Vrais Richesses' he opened in Algiers in 1936. 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.