This bookstore with a yellow background and name in black letters, together with a little sticker depicting the best known modern Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), highlights Torstraße very well and gives it Latin American vibes.

“a Livraria” is a Brazilian-(German-)Italian-Portuguese bookstore. Yes, an “a” in lowercase. And I understand the meaning of this “a” as a Portuguese definite article – “the Bookstore”, it would mean. Although it’s sad to see no publication from Macau, a Livraria remains very important for me as I need a reference in Portuguese for my writings, so I can imagine how important it is for Portuguese-language readers in Berlin.

It’s beautiful that the bookstore very often offers both Brazilian and Portuguese versions of the same book. I got Camus’s “The Plague” there and one of the books by Slavoj Žižek’s “Pandemic!” – both in their Brazilian editions! Italian books also represent half the bookstore. The very famous Bruno Munari’s “Supplement to the Italian Dictionary” is also to be found, along with a variety of secondhand books in German.