Alba Donati > Quotes

“No necesitamos entenderlo todo de la vida, pero sí tener la experiencia de la ternura, que nos atraviesa, nos induce a hacer gestos, acciones, nos guía.”
― Alba Donati, La librería en la colina

“La comunidad es una familia especial de la que uno se siente parte integrante, en la que se echa una mano a quien lo necesita y se comparten penas y alegrías.”
― Alba Donati, La librería en la colina

“A bookshop is a school – a window looking out on a world that we only think we know. But to really understand the world we have to read, because those who write are always inspired by something that doesn’t quite fit the mould. And when things don’t add up, authors must face the paradox of life and venture into the darkness of the human mind – become at one with that darkness, even – there is no other way.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“People want stories; it doesn’t matter who wrote them, they need stories to take their mind off things, stories to identify with or to take them elsewhere. Stories that won’t hurt, that will heal a wound, restore trust, instil beauty into their hearts.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“I’d better make a list of all the things that make me feel good. Lists save lives. They keep our memories alive, as Umberto Eco says in The Infinity of Lists. Here goes: Laura’s voice message letting me know she’s at an LGBT+ rights demo like she’d tell me she was popping down to the shops, and warning me not to pick up if her boyfriend calls; he’s looking for her, and fretting because he can’t find her, and anyway he ‘doesn’t even know the difference between gay and straight’ Raffaella’s voice messages and her joy when she receives our books Maicol tearing through the cobbled streets of Lucignana, drunk on life My great-niece Rebecca joining the bookshop family and the certainty her cynicism will blossom into something completely unexpected My father’s existence The coffee I’m about to have with Tessa, who’s on her way to us on her motorbike with a box full of bookmarks, our official bookmarks she’s been gifting us since that day after the fire, with a quote from her mother Lynn Emanuele Trevi and Giovanni Giovannetti absconding from the literary conference in Lucca, later found smoking weed in a car in Piazza San Michele by a security guard, who happened to be the writer Vincenzo Pardini, so he let them go Ernesto and Mum cuddling on the sofa Daniele’s Barbara and Maurizio’s Barbara Ricchi e Poveri Donatella being sure Romano fancies her My mother trying to escape her hospital bed as soon as I look the other way Tina’s mother Mike quickly wrapping a towel around his waist as I walk into his garden and Mike leaving Brighton with two large boxes of tea stashed in his boot, concocting a story for the customs officers The anglers reading Louise Glück and Lawrence Ferlinghetti on the Segone The words I only ever hear in Lucignana: lollers and slackies and ‘bumming down’ to pee My own continued, miraculous existence.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“From which I conclude (in case anyone had any doubt) that the publishing industry is almost entirely propped up by women, and these mothers in particular were able to pass on their love of books to their children. Who’d have thought that, in this day and age, a group of twenty-something’s first reaction upon seeing something beautiful would be to share it with their mothers?”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Las cosas no se nos ocurren, las cosas se incuban, fermentan, ocupan nuestras fantasías mientras dormimos. Las cosas avanzan por su cuenta, recorren un camino paralelo en algún lugar de nuestro interior del que no tenemos ni el más remoto conocimiento y, en un momento determinado, llaman a la puerta: aquí estamos, somos tus ideas y queremos que nos escuches.”
― Alba Donati, La librería en la colina

“I connect it to Mayakovsky’s for a simple reason: theirs are both ‘active’ suicides, provocative, choreographed almost, nothing short of performances.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Here, people look for something they won’t find elsewhere, something that won’t disappoint them – here, they really look. It’s the aura that surrounds all independent bookshops.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“I think this has something to do with comfort reading: you read to be comforted, and cry when the comfort kicks in.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“This is what I fill my shop with – books and objects inspired by books. I wander the Web, browsing and browsing until the right thing materialises in front of me.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Angelica is me finally revisiting my childhood without fear. Because childhood is a trap: there are beautiful things and ugly things, you just have to find a magic wand to turn one into the other. Now that I’ve got my cottage full of books, I have nothing to worry about.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Whenever an ambulance arrives in Lucignana the news spreads like wildfire, as if the houses themselves were relaying the message. I’m convinced Jan Koum, who created WhatsApp, must have studied how communication works in little mountain villages: as soon as someone changes their status, anyone connected to that person will know. We’re the original social network, a network forged through first communions, confirmations, imaginary footballer boyfriends, the first taste of those forbidden”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“At 8 a.m. he left and at 8.29 he called to say there was no need for her to leave the house, he’d be grabbing newspapers and cigarettes on his way back. That was the last time she heard his voice. They’d hugged at the door as if it was the first time, or the last, as they did every time.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Whenever an ambulance arrives in Lucignana the news spreads like wildfire, as if the houses themselves were relaying the message. I’m convinced Jan Koum, who created WhatsApp, must have studied how communication works in little mountain villages: as soon as someone changes their status, anyone connected to that person will know. We’re the original social network, a network forged through first communions, confirmations, imaginary footballer boyfriends, the first taste of those forbidden pleasures, and pretending to be famous bands.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“When I walk barefoot on the rocks warmed by the sun I feel their feral freedom, the freedom of Tiziana, Alessandra, of my mother. I know that molecules of that same primeval strength endure in our blood – we are made of them, made of defeat and rose petals.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Now that summer’s here, with its calm and its delightful evening breeze, I’m more convinced than ever that if I had to leave this place, I’d die. The landscape, yes – but the real magic is in the relationships. These streets are my home; with these people I can be the way I am, no need to add anything. Sometimes, like Mike, I walk barefoot – walk the earth, quite literally, feeling the earth beneath me, feeling the warmth of the sun, like a plant.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“How did I get the idea? Ideas don't just spring out of nothing - they smoulder, ferment, crowd our mind while we sleep. Ideas walk on their own two legs, follow their own parallel path in part of us we have absolutely no idea existed, until one day they come knocking: here we are, they say, now listen carefully!”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir

“My own magical thinking keeps telling me to bring her home, even with a broken vertebra, even if she could die. She wanted to die in my arms and I can’t leave her on a balcony with her neck stuck in a brace and no house around her. I just can’t.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“It’s like your own bookshelves at home: whether recent or old, books need to make sense, they need to be chosen and live there for a reason.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“A Manifesto for Aspiring Booksellers Live your life reading Welcome the people walking through your door as readers, not customers Never fancy yourself better than your readers Pay attention to what your readers ask for – it will open up new horizons Never betray your readers by recommending the wrong book Pick ‘your’ authors and give them visibility Honour Sylvia Beach, every day of the week Always offer a cup of tea Flowers – don’t forget flowers Remember to celebrate Virginia, Emily, Jane, and all the others”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“When his daughter Vania was born, I was so jealous that if we were left alone, I would pinch her hard until she cried. She was just a baby, but I was a seven-year-old who saw things far away – I wasn’t exactly having an easy time of it either.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Description: ‘With just five euros from each Facebook friend I could make a dream come true: spark an inextinguishable passion for literature in a tiny village that doesn’t even have a school (a bit like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat, but with books). The village is called Lucignana, only a few kilometres away from dreamy Garfagnana, and it’s here that I want to open a little bookshop – say, a tiny wooden cottage open six months a year where children (but also adults) can find a book that speaks to them, a magical place where you can admire the most wonderful sunsets on the Apuan Alps.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Childhood holds sway over all other seasons of life. It makes no difference whether it was happy or unhappy, that is where we will always return to answer for our actions. I think this is because childhood is completely devoid of ambition, of any interest in status, roles or accolades – except for the need to love and be loved.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Cit. p.81 "I fiori come noi pensano, intuiscono la via più semplice, evitano percorsi difficili. e lottano, hanno spiriti rivoluzionari. ... Penso alla povera erba medica che ripone dentro leggere spirali i suoi semi per rallentarne la caduta e permettere al vento di portarli lontano, L'erba è troppo vicina al suolo e il seme in un battibaleno è a terra.”
― Alba Donati, La libreria sulla collina

“I met Seamus Heaney. A genuine, very straightforward man, completely devoid of egotism, a poet. When I chose the name for my bookshop, Libreria Sopra la Penna, I thought of him.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“The bookshop – which opened on 7 December 2019, burnt down on 30 January 2020 and reopened again in a flash – was also a catalyst for this group of people to become a real community. A community is like a special family where you help those who need helping and celebrate”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“My mind goes to Annie Ernaux’s A Woman’s Story, to the different feelings she experienced when her mother died. Another fragile, modern daughter, another ancestral, rock-solid mother figure, another gulf between them. And guilt, too, flickering through it all, involuntary contractions of the soul that logic cannot defeat.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Tessa gave us a bookmark, which is now our official bookmark. It reads: ‘It was my mother, Jean Martin, who taught me to look after other people. My father Grenville, too, would always pick up strays along the road and give them a chance in life. He’d learnt this from his own father, despite growing up in abject poverty.’ It was signed by Tessa’s mother, Lynn Holden Wiechmann. Yes, her name was Holden.”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

“Since the day I opened the bookshop, I’ve barely had a conversation where I wasn’t asked, ‘How did you get the idea to open a bookshop in a village of 180 souls, in the middle of nowhere?”
― Alba Donati, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop