| Dear Readers,
We are quickly closing in on one of our favourite moments in the year – Independent Bookshop Week, which starts on Saturday 17th June and runs through until the end of Saturday 24th June.
Each year we use this as an opportunity to collaborate with an indie publisher we love in order to bring them more exposure, and to get more of their books into your hands. Small bookshops and small presses are natural allies – we don’t have huge budgets for marketing or advertising, we rely on word of mouth and the loyalty of our customers. We each choose our books extremely carefully, knowing that reputation is crucial for us, and that readers must be able to trust us to bring them writing of the highest quality, without a thought for the vagueries of national best-seller lists, or the mercenary cynicism of algorithms.
This year we are really thrilled to be collaborating with Fitzcarraldo Editions to cover our shop in the gloriously elegant, crisp white and blue of their iconic covers.
Fitzcarraldo represents the epitome of what I love about a small, independent publisher – pick a title at random from their list and read it, and you can rely on it to be interesting. There is a very good chance you will find it not just interesting, but utterly compelling and quite possibly totally brilliant. There is even a very respectable chance that you will be reading something by a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (three of their authors have so far won the award – Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk and Annie Ernaux).
You can have a thorough explore on our website here.
So far this year, I have read the following books published by Fitzcarraldo, all of which I would (or have done so already) heartily recommend: Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai, translated by Polly Barton; This is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes; The Private Lives of Trees & also Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra, both translated by Megan McDowell; Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton.
Fitzcarraldo are kindly sending us some loot to give away when you buy one of their books from us during this IBW period. This will include some tote bags, some proof copies of books, postcards & bookmarks. There will be a limited amount of these, so it will be strictly a first come first served and while stocks last kind of situation. The real treat, of course, will be in picking up some brilliant new writing.
We very much hope that those of you who have not read anything from their extraordinary list will consider diving in. We also know there are some ardent Fitzcarraldo fans out there among our customers, and we hope you will enjoy this excuse to indulge further.
As one last little inducement, we have a booklet of £5 National Book Token E-vouchers to give away for the first customers to visit during Indie Bookshop Week (1 voucher per customer, while they last).
|
