Photo: Enric Vives-Rubio
Greta Livraria in Lisbon is the latest in a wave of bookshops that have sprouted up across Europe which are giving voice to female authors, past and present. Six years ago in Scotland, Rachel Wood launched a book subscription service, Rare Birds, which now has members from more than 20 countries, and a bricks-and-mortar shop in Edinburgh. “Women are so often treated like a monolith, as if we all have the same thoughts and desires just by virtue of sharing a gender,” she says. “When you walk into the store, it’s instantly clear how far that is from the truth; the scope of ideas and styles and experiences is vast.” Most of the purchases at both stores are by women, but the Rare Birds community has grown to include men. “Lots of people wander in off the street not knowing a thing about our store and are simply happy to browse whatever is there,” Wood says. “At the end of the day, a good book is a good book.”
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