Ten years ago, when I first moved to Madrid, I bought my English-language books at a secondhand bookshop in dusty Calle Campomanes. Then life got busy and I opened an Amazon account. Recently I was on Calle Campomanes and I passed my old bookshop. It now has lemon trees out front and a new name over the door: Desperate Literature.
The shop’s new owners are the born-again booksellers behind Atlantis Books on Santorini, Greece, and Book Thug Nation in Brooklyn, New York, and it’s lovingly managed by Charlotte and Terry, a Frenchwoman and a Yorkshire poet, both ex-employees of the famous Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris.
With a vintage typewriter for browsers to punch out poems, a chessboard and naughty kitten, Desperate Literature might initially seem affected. But Charlotte and Terry are pure in their desire to build a homely bolthole for book lovers. The typewriter is for typing, says Charlotte, not selfies. They offer tea and wine to customers (backpackers, expats, and locals) and they’re picky (there’s Raymond Chandler, Isaac Asimov and Laurie Lee – but no Danielle Steel or Dan Brown). There are also works in Spanish and French, and prices run from €3 to €9. Boxes of books continue arriving from New York and literary treasures are dug up in Madrid’s flea market.
Charlotte says the shop is a sketch of what it will be. Space must be made, shelves must be built, and the naughty kitten – tentatively called Wednesday – needs a definitive name.
James Blick is the author of Madrid food blog madridchow.com
