Alicia Bisso
translated by Heather Cleary

I never liked poetry. My self-imposed task of learning to read it began with a strange discovery. One afternoon, a traffic jam brought me to a stop in front of what seemed to be a small bookstore. I was barely able to make out what the sign hanging from the iron door said. I-N-E-S-T-A-B-L-E. Unstable. I went back because of the name. As soon as I set foot inside, I knew I had found my place. I’m drawn to small spaces where I’m not overwhelmed by titles and authors, and where the salespeople don’t throw themselves at me like darts. When I’m in a bookstore, I like to feel invisible. The owner of La Inestable is always reading and seems not to pay attention to anything else, so I’m able to take all … Read More »

Maryia Martysevich

The Republic of Belarus is often called “the last dictatorship of Europe,” but you’d hardly think so upon arriving in Minsk, its capital. This is a quiet, neat city with wide streets and squares filled with modern stores, restaurants and places of business. The only things reminiscent of the USSR are the huge Stalin-style buildings in the city center and the Soviet-style propaganda on billboards. Still, you can’t judge a book by its cover. To get the real experience, you have plug in to the System. In brief, read Franz Kafka and watch The Matrix.

If you live in Belarus, be sure you have a license for whatever you do. That’s how the System works. Issuing (and taking back) licenses is the main means of control in Belarus. This is why you won’t see independent art … Read More »

Milton Läufer
translated by Heather Cleary

It’s true: Edipo is an ugly bookstore. And yet, though this may seem like a contradiction, its most notable trait is its invisibility. Though it was founded more than thirty years ago on one of the busiest stretches of Corrientes Avenue and has survived the rise and fall of some giants of its guild nearby, surprisingly few people know about it. The reason for this, I think, is that Edipo disappears among the dozens of its less important peers that surround it. The ones that, instead of shelving their books, heap them carelessly on rickety tables; the best-seller is everywhere in these stores, as are the self-help book and a few classics in reprint editions of questionable legality. These shops are passed over by the eye of the book fetishist, … Read More »