A Bookshop in Algiers

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Sonra kitabevine ek olarak beğendiği genç yazarların tanınmasını da sağlayacak bir yayınevi kuruyor. 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.

It’s the story of a ‘native boy’ in French Morocco whose father sent him to French school to ‘learn how his enemy thinks.Nuestras riquezas, de la joven escritora Kaouther Adimi (Argel, 1986), pertenece a una especie de subgénero literario que nunca caerá en desuso porque se alimenta de un sentimiento imperecedero: sí, esa febril nostalgia que cualquier amante de la lectura ha experimentado al sumergirse entre las páginas de un libro que habla sobre otros libros. Evet ya, her şey yolunda: Kitaplar alfabetik sıraya göre dizilmiş, sanat eserleri hemen üste asılmış ve burada sadece edebiyata, sanata ve dostluğa yer var.

Bir gün kitabevi açma/yayınevi kurma hayali olan tüm okurlar için Charlot’nun öyküsü oldukça heveslendirici ve motive edici. I am pretty much a pre-sold believer in any books about books, libraries and publishing and I was completely captivated by Adimi's world building here of Charlot's life and of present day Algiers. No encuentro las palabras para transmitir lo maravilloso que ha sido perderme en las páginas de este pequeño gran libro. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Charlot gründete in den 30er Jahren eine Buchhandlung in Algier, die von Beginn an viel mehr als eine Buchhandlung war.

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. Elle met en scène des personnages ayant des rapports variés vis-à-vis des livres et de la littérature, d'un côté nous avons Edmond Charlot et ses amis qui en sont férus, et de l'autre nous avons Abdallah et Ryad qui n'aiment pas lire, mais contrairement à Ryad, Abdallah aimerait préserver les livres dont il a été le gardien durant de longues années, dans cette librairie qui était devenue son foyer. 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. Finally, there are short chapters in between that recount historical events and serve as a guide to give the reader context.

The contemporary storyline is rather redundant compared to the interesting tale of Edmund (albeit he annoyed me a bit at times in the sense that he doesn't request help or tries to overcome his own lack of business sense). The story involving Ryad showcased the passage of time and the lack of appreciation for history and the past by the younger generation. 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. The author separates the story into three sections, most chapters having a first section based in the present day, a second section describing historical events of a specific period and the third section imagining the diary entries of Edmond Charlot for that period. I also found the personal stories of those struggling to keep the publishing house going while living through the years leading to independence very moving.

Et ma réponse à la question posée par l'auteure à la fin du roman est : oui, un jour je viendrai au 2 bis de la rue Hamani, inchallah. I have never been to Algeria and am not very knowledgeable about the Algerian revolution or about the country. I go on a bit much about the schools in the paragraph above because it ties in with a book I reviewed about a month ago: The Simple Past by Driss Chraibi. 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.

The backdrop to these literary endeavors is far from ideal, permanent money and paper shortages culminate in the company of the main character in 1948 for 22 million francs in the red, despite publishing famous authors. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had been aware from the start that it was based on a real person (should have read the cover more carefully! The story in this short novella, is told in two streams one in set in 2017 and the other which is in a diary entry form narrated by Charlot and spans 1930s, through WW2 and Algiers resistance through to 1961.Charlot was an advocate for Algerian independence and the story is peppered with historical incidents of violence and massacres during the war for independence. Seguro que muchos de nosotros hemos pensado más de una vez en dedicarnos al sector editorial o a los libros. The result is a collage of moments and feelings, rather than a comprehensive historical account or standard narrative. El crecimiento lento pero constante, la inevitable llegada de los premios y posterior reconocimiento. 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.