Book Review: A Bookshop in Algiers

Never once did he say a word to suggest that our talent represented anything less than the future of Algerian and French and indeed of world literature

Wow – this was a beautiful book about the joys of literature. I didn’t realise until after I finished reading this novel that it is based on a true story; Edmond Charlot was a real person and the life he led in Colonial Algiers and Paris was incredible. He was friends with Albert Camus, who later won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957.

The story takes place in both Algiers and France through war and revolution. It is a book that travels through time – we have three different perspectives: Edmond Charlot – based on his diaries and journals. Ryad – a young man in the year 2017 tasked with emptying the bookshop that Charlot worked so hard to build and, a nameless third party or even parties; a voice that gives context to colonial Algiers, the fight for freedom in determination and the brutality to the Algerian peoples that ensues.

Edmond Charlot is a dreamer and that is one of my favourite qualities about him; he opens his bookshop and publishing house in Algiers and immerses himself into the local community and has this incredible drive to publish new authors and discover beautiful pieces of literature. But, more importantly – he wants to share them with the world. He dreams big and so ventures to Paris with some friends. To say that this venture is a disaster is an understatement. Post-war Paris saw very little paper and funds – you end with the impression that he was stabbed in the back by his friends.

The overarching structure of this book is brilliantly done – juxtaposing the political realities and the dreams of men. This book asks, ‘What’re dreams made of?’ Is it a place, or person; is it found within the paper and ink of a freshly bound book? Literature has the capacity for crafting and creating imagined realities – yet this book clearly states that the dream-like visions of Charlot do not match the brutal realities that Algiers fought through in the 20th century.

This is an English translation of the original French – if the English version is this eloquent then I am in awe of what the French version is like. I am usually wary of translations, particularly in terms of ‘voice’. I worry that the ‘voice’ of the author has been compromised and therefore not faithful to the original. As much as I adored this book – that small seed of doubt will remain.