Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop (Donati Alba); Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022

Alba used to live a hectic life, working as a book publicist in Italy, and yet she always felt like a woman on the run. And so one day she decided to stop running and go back to Lucignana, the small village on the Tuscan hills where she was born, to open a tiny bookshop.

Alba's enterprise seems doomed from day one but it surprisingly sparks the enthusiasm of many across Italy. And after surviving a fire and multiple Covid lockdowns, the 'Bookshop on the Hill' becomes a refuge for an ever-growing community of people: from local friends and family to the many, many readers who come to visit from afar or place orders online, safe in the knowledge that Alba will be able to find the perfect book for them.