Italian bookshops worldwide recommend… : Antwerp’s selection (De Groene Waterman)

From 2025 onwards, newitalianbooks is asking booksellers all over the world who sell books in Italian to highlight the titles most in demand among their readers. With this initiative, newitalianbooks wants to strengthen the role that bookshops abroad play in promoting Italian books worldwide.

This month our guest bookshop is De Groene Waterman in Antwerp (Belgium).

De Groene Waterman is a cooperative bookstore in the historic heart of Antwerp, offering a selection of literature and socially relevant books. In the basement of the bookstore, under charming brick vaulted arches, we are building a cultural cellar where everyone can go for reading groups, book presentations, performances, and debates. And the good news is: anyone who wants to can become a co-owner of the bookstore. Ever since its founding in 1968, De Groene Waterman has strived for a healthy balance between selfless, outspoken social engagement and acquiring sufficient financial resources to build a literary and socially relevant bookstore. Thanks to the current cooperative organizational structure, there is no commercial pressure from profit-driven owners or shareholders. De Groene Waterman has been working with La Dante di Anversa since 2014 to offer Antwerp’s audiences books in the original language. It is no coincidence that every four months, in the cellar of the bookstore there is the Circolo dei lettori de La Dante di Anversa where, from time to time, a different Italian novel is discussed.

‘Italian bookshops worlwide recommend…’ is an initiative organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The following titles have been selected for newitalianbooks readers by De Groene Waterman in Antwerp…