Bookstore Literature. Four Novels That Treat and Portrait Bookstores

Abstract

Four novels: 1. Balzac y la joven costurera china by Dai Sijie, 2. El lector a domicilio by Fabio Morabito, 3. El Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and 4. Una librería en Berlín by Françoise Frenkel, narrate the existence and life of the bookstore. The bookstore is one in concept and multiple in form, located geographically distant from each other and with different narratological treatment. In one case the story barely mentions it; in others, it appears as photographs to support the anecdote; and, in another, it is the fictional epicenter. What we see here is the presence of the bookstore as a publishing phenomenon and a way of making literatura. In this sense, this document explores some of the ways and possibilities that this narrative form provides, offering glimpses of study lines.