Featured Bookstore of the Month: Gallimard Montreal

Granted, there are still dozens of indie stores in the U.S. to feature as the bookstore of the month, but there are two good reasons why we chose to feature Gallimard Montreal for the month of May: 1) May is World in Translation Month, so it seemed fitting to feature a store from one of the most translation-centric province/states in North America, and 2) I recently visited this store and was absolutely blown away.

I hesitate to make such a grand statement (well, not really), but this is what an indie store should be. This store shelves French translations of classics from all over the world, all shelved by region. Just from looking around, you can tell that this is a store that values its editorial selections. There are titles there that probably only sell one copy a year, but that totally impress perceptive customers. The displays are beautiful, the store is very neat and clean, the staff is very well read . . . and this is the place where I found the first novel (I think) to be written about my home town: Le ciel de Bay City by Catherine Mavrikakis. So I guess there are three reasons to feature this store . . .

Since May is a bit more subdued than recent months, I’m hoping to have a few features on Quebec literature and publishing, and hopefully an interview with one of the employees of Gallimard Montreal.