Summary
- Called the Manifesto Library, the project is the physical extension of Service95, the book club Lipa has been running since 2021.
- In a press release, Lipa said that when she founded the Service95 Book Club, her ambition was for it to become a home for writers and readers wherever they are and whatever their circumstances, adding that reading the world brings people closer, even though not everyone supports that idea.
- Lipa described the library as a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage exposes structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what they are allowed to read.
A week after taking her wedding vows, Dua Lipa is opening a permanent library dedicated to banned and censored books at the historic Livraria Lello bookshop in Porto, Portugal.
Called the Manifesto Library, the project is the physical extension of Service95, the book club Lipa has been running since 2021. It opens on June 27 as part of a multi day celebration marking Livraria Lello’s 120th anniversary, and will remain at the venue as a permanent feature going forward.
In a press release, Lipa said that when she founded the Service95 Book Club, her ambition was for it to become a home for writers and readers wherever they are and whatever their circumstances, adding that reading the world brings people closer, even though not everyone supports that idea. She described the new library as a dream collaboration, explaining that the 100 carefully curated books in its collection are works that ask questions or have themselves been questioned, noting that many of their authors paid for their words with their lives.
The collection includes titles such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Reginald Dwayne Betts’ Felon, alongside works by authors including Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk.
Lipa described the library as a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage exposes structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what they are allowed to read. She invited visitors to decide for themselves what belongs on the shelves, adding that sometimes the most subversive thing a person can do is read a book and then talk about it.
Books have long been woven into Lipa’s public life beyond her book club. She met her now husband, Callum Turner, at a bar after the two struck up a conversation while both reading Hernan Diaz’s Trust. She was also a keynote speaker at this year’s 10th anniversary celebrations of the International Booker Prize.
