A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi (2017)

 This one has been retitled for the UK, and given what I would call a 'modern goo-goo' cover design (though better than many of that stamp), to cater to the tastes of the current craze in "sweet" representation. The original title was Nos Richesses, which has survived into the US edition as Our Riches. The US edition has gone for a travel-style cover design. It's a documentary novel I guess, using slices of history and imagining encrustations upon it (diary entries etc) to flesh out the picture. The bookshop in question is Les Vraies Richesses in Algiers, where Edmond Charlot, from the 30s, helped to jumpstart the careers of Camus, Roblès and other luminaries of Francophone North Africa, particularly Algeria. The author has interfiled numbered chapters concerning the emptying of the closed shop in the current time, and the life of the young man tasked to do it, as well as his interactions with passionate or unconcerned locals, mainly of the street on which it stands, while the job is done. Memories inevitably come up, as does a lot of politics, both historical and current, and how those play out on the street. Between these are largely invented diary excerpts of Charlot and chapters on particular historical moments which were crucially tied to the shop, giving slices of war history, publishing history, the ups and downs of the shop's fortunes and so on. It all forms a chance for the author to essay a broad picture of a narrow set of events and how they ramify. On the whole, it's a savourful and interesting mixture. Every now and then some reference will feel a little emptily gestural, where the intent of being atmospheric and political will be undercut by nods to profundities which feel a bit banal. The author speaks at the end about the closing of the shop being her invention, and that it's still operating - nice to think of that.