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There is something that goes well beyond the booksellers book next door that prompts me to visit, albeit virtually, and to tell the Vicolo Stretto bookshop , maybe because it is located in Catania and half Catanese blood flows in my blood?
Call of blood or not, one cannot fail to speak of this family-run reality!
I have to make a confession to you, I met them in person at the Turin book fair this year and we spent some time together exchanging opinions and comparing our experience, but I hadn’t in the least realized they were sisters. After a few months I notice the same surname, and all their posts start to make a whole different sense! Oh well, I have my times but I get there (said the bookseller of one meter and fifty, you decide whether to trust or not). Now, just talk about me, I present to you the Kessler Sisters of literature, two booksellers who are a force of nature: ladies and gentlemen, here you are Angelica and Maria Carmela Sciacca.

Library name : Vicolo Stretto bookshop
year of opening : 2011
sqm : 23
employees : 2 self-paying owners.
gender : varies
region : Sicily
city : Catania
address : Via Santa Filomena, 38.

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What did you do in your “previous life”?
Angelica the university student on site
Maria Carmela Social Marketing for an NGO in the Basque Country.

When did you decide to join the crazy world of books?
It was the bookshop that chose us in the summer of 2011.
We were sipping a cocktail when the old owner of the shop proposed us to acquire the business and as good “fools” we didn’t miss the opportunity.

What’s the question customers should never ask you?
Is the price of the book the one on the cover?

And what is the thing that pleases you most to tell you?
In this bookshop I feel at home.

The strangest request that has been made of you?
I wanted to buy this book (“The Well of Wonders” by Giuseppe Pitre, Donzelli Editore) but I thought it would be better to photocopy it. Do you have a copier?

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The first book you read?
Angelica “Little Women”, Louisa May Alcott
Maria Carmela “Holocaust”, Gerald Green

I know it’s difficult, but if I asked you for a podium, what would be the 3 books you would tell me?
Angelica
Bender “The unmistakable sadness of the lemon cake”, Minimum Fax
Blaine Harden “Field Escape 14”, Code editions
Massimo Roscia “The massacre of the subjunctives”, Exorma .

Maria Carmela
Suskind “Profumo”, Tea Edizioni
Gutierrez “Dirty Havana Trilogy”, E / O
By Richard Wilhelm, “I KING. The book of changes ”.

If you could make a request to those in charge of supporting and helping libraries, what would you ask?
More than helping bookstores, I would encourage the “cultural trend” from childhood to allow today’s children and tomorrow’s adults to become supporters and enthusiasts of books and bookstores.

What book are you reading at the moment?
AngelicaThe silence of the wrestler” by Rossella Milone, Minimum fax ,.
Maria Carmela “Lauro” by Evgenij Vodolazkin, Elliot Edizioni

What book would you recommend instead?
Angelica : Fabio Genovesi “Who sends the waves”, Mondadori.
Maria Carmela : “The opposite” Fabio Viola, Baldini & Castoldi

Digital book, true enemy of paper?
We never thought that the digital book could be the enemy of the paper book rather we think that very interesting scenarios can be created by exploiting the integration of the two supports.

Is there a bookseller next door that you recommend that I contact?
Raffaello Buccheri “Lettera Ventidue Library” Syracuse.

How can we keep in touch with your library? Leave us all your contact details. Facebook, twitter, instagram, blog …
E-mail: vicolostrettoct@gmail.com
Telephone: 095/2962587
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/libreria.stretto
Twitter: @Vicolostretto
Instagram: VICOLOSTRETTO