Inside Dua Lipa’s Library of Banned Books

A firsthand look at the new collection beneath one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

The Manifesto Library, created by Dua Lipa in partnership with Livraria Lello, contains books that have been challenged around the world. (Photo by Ron Charles.)

PORTO, Portugal — Portugal feels awfully far away from America’s 250th-birthday celebrations this weekend, but a brand-new library of banned and censored books here may be one of the world’s most timely celebrations of liberty.

British singer and songwriter Dua Lipa created the collection — called The Manifesto Library — in partnership with Livraria Lello, the celebrated bookstore in Porto.

Although hundreds of customers were lined up outside the store — with timed tickets that start at about $15 — few people seemed to know about Lipa’s new Manifesto Library, and there are no signs indicating its existence. But if you ask a staff member, you’ll be led down the white stone stairwell to the basement level of Livraria Lello’s new cultural space, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira. (The exhibition space is also wheelchair accessible via an elevator.)

Fewer than a dozen people are allowed to enter at any given time, which contributes to the quiet, pensive atmosphere of The Manifesto Library.

In a statement printed on the wall, Lipa writes, “This library is a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what book they are allowed.”

The large rectangular room, indirectly lit, is lined with colorful books on simple white shelves. But what’s most striking is the room’s dramatically sunken floor — three levels of oak boards that seem to place visitors on shelves, too, suggesting that we’re all at risk of being censored.

The books — about 100 titles — have been banned or repressed at various times and in various places around the world.

The collection contains all the classic targets, from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Toni Morrison’s Beloved to more recently banned titles like Alexei Navalny’s Patriot and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.

It feels serendipitous — and then sobering — to see the same titles, such as Anne Frank’s Diary and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, reappear around the room in various editions and different languages. It’s a physical reminder that the fight for intellectual and creative freedom is worldwide.

Pithy quotations appear in spaces between the books, like warnings whispered to co-conspirators.

“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance. You have to work at it.”
— The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

“No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires, too.”
— Swimming in the Dark, by Tomasz Jedrowski

A large television screen at one end shows video footage of protests and clips of Lipa interviewing some of the authors represented on the shelves, such as Olga Tokarczuk and Percival Everett.

That feature is muted. Instead, as visitors to The Manifesto Library browse, they hear only a mournful soundtrack of music selected by the staff of Livraria Lello.

The experience, so carefully designed and controlled, is strangely beautiful, a reminder of how fortunate we are and how much we have to lose if these books are someday available only in a guarded basement for paying customers.◆

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