You walk into a bookstore and choose a book.
You walk into a bookstore and a book chooses you.

Cristina is a bookseller in a small bookstore in a neighborhood in Milan.

Ten years ago, a reader named Alberto came into this bookstore, picked out a book, paid for it, but didn’t take it home.

He left it there and said to Cristina: “This is my favorite book, I pay for it.
Tomorrow, give it to whoever you think will appreciate the story.”

For Cristina, this spontaneous gesture is very beautiful, but she wonders: “How can I decide who to give this book to?”
So she lets fate decide.

The next day, Cristina gives the book to Michela, the first person who enters the bookstore.
The girl is surprised but does something equally beautiful: she picks out a book and lets Cristina give it to the next person who comes in after her.
And it happens again.
It’s the first day of the “Suspended Books – i libri sospesi.” Throughout the day, strangers give books to strangers.

ONE DAY…

a girl enters Cristina’s bookstore, picks out a book, and suspended it.
After her, a man enters and Cristina gives him the book.

A few days later, the man returns, picks out a book, and suspended it.
However, he asks not to give it to the person who comes in after him, but to the unknown person who had sspended the book for him.
And here, too, it happens again.
The two exchange books without ever meeting. The books begin to contain dedications, until the last “Suspended Book” brings them together.

SUSPENDING BOOKS…

can change a person’s life.
Cristina’s life, the bookseller, has changed, but deep down she already knew this:
“In the bookstore, magical, unimaginable things happen.
This place is a container of stories, welcoming other stories that cross the threshold.”

AN IDEA…

inspired by a similar tradition, the “caffè sospeso“.
In Italy, suspended coffee is a solidarity practice where an extra coffee is paid for and left “suspended” for someone who might need it.
So when someone is in difficulty, they can receive a free coffee offered by a stranger.
Suspended books follow the same principle: a book is paid for in advance and left “suspended” for an unknown reader.
It is a gesture of generosity and solidarity that creates a chain of sharing and cultural exchange.
Each suspended book becomes a small story of altruism and connection between people, just as suspended coffee is an act of kindness between strangers.

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