The Bookseller of Venice

In Venice’s Campo San Giacomo you’ll find Moby Dick, one of those bookshops “you’re always surprised to discover still exist...”. The bookseller is Vittorio, he’s just over forty, lives for his books and fights to be able to go on selling them. One day he meets Sofia, bright-eyed and quick-witted, who makes a habit of going to see him there. On the 12th November 2019, however, 187 centimetres of an exceptional acqua alta flood the houses and shops, and submerge Vittorio’s bookshelves. The books drown “and the whole of Campo San Giacomo is full of lost books, and at that moment it seems as if everything is lost”. Giovanni Montanaro experienced first-hand the tragic days of the flood that shook the world. But he also tells another story, not only describing the anxiety caused by the rising water, but revealing another Venice: the young people, the Venetians, the joy which won out amid the devastation, springing from people’s ability to help each other. And most of all the booksellers, the love of books and the love which books engender, the determination to salvage at all costs the things that are most dear. Readers and booksellers have been moved by this story, which evokes Venice and its magnificent uniqueness but becomes, at the same time, a symbol for every tragic emergency and every human rebirth. “…for the first time he sees that these books aren’t dead, even if they’re damaged, even if they’re no longer perfect – just like humans, they get damaged, but they still go on living.” A novel which is a loving tribute to Venice and to books.