Dua Lipa has opened her own permanent physical library for banned and challenged literature. The library encourages people to read more books and supports the freedom to read.
The library sits inside the iconic Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal. The Manifesto Library features 100 contemporary titles from around the world.
Many of these books have sparked debate. Some have faced censorship or removal from schools and libraries. Their themes include race, gender, identity, and politics, according to Service95.
Service95 is Lipa’s lifestyle brand. It operates as both a book club and an editorial platform. The brand also publishes weekly newsletters and podcasts.
“The collection is more than an archive of banned books, although many on its shelves have been prohibited from publication, stripped from school curricula or removed from library systems in an attempt to stop someone, somewhere from reading them,” Service95 said in a statement.
The Manifesto Library opened to the public on June 27. The opening formed part of the first BABELL literary and cultural festival.
The festival celebrated Porto as a “city of books”. It also marked Livraria Lello’s 120th anniversary.
Lipa described the library as a “dream partnership” between Service95 and Livraria. She also called it a “shrine to books that have disappeared”.
The British-Albanian pop star added: “You are invited to visit and decide for yourself what belongs on these shelves. Because sometimes the most subversive thing you can do is read a book and then talk about it.”
Four themes
Readers can browse the library’s books across four themes: Power, Control, Voice, and Memory.
Power focuses on titles that challenge power structures, social systems, and cultural norms. Control explores censorship, propaganda, technological influence, and ideological conditioning, according to Livraria.
Voice gives space to silenced and marginalised communities. Memory brings together books about war, dictatorship, exile, and collective trauma.
The collection includes several notable titles. These include George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’, and Mohammed Hanif’s ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ under Power.
The Control section features Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’, and Yoko Ogawa’s ‘The Memory Police’.
Voice includes ‘My Pen is the Wing of a Bird’ by 18 Afghan women writers. It also features Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ and Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verse’.
Memory includes Min Jin Lee’s ‘Pachinko’, Milan Kundera’s ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, and Alexei Navalny’s ‘Patriot’.
Readers who cannot visit the library can find the complete book list on Goodreads.
Rampant book censorship
The Manifesto Library arrives at a time when book censorship remains widespread.
The United States recorded 6,870 book bans during the 2024–25 period. The figure was lower than the total recorded during the 2023–24 academic year, according to nonprofit organisation PEN America.
Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’ topped the list of most-banned books during the reviewed period. The novel follows a youth gang leader who undergoes experimental aversion therapy to overcome his violent tendencies.
Jennifer Niven’s ‘Breathless’ and Patricia McCormick’s ‘Sold’ tied for second place. Malinda Lo’s ‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ and Sarah J. Maas’ ‘A Court of Mist and Fury’ followed.
“Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country. Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide,” PEN America wrote.
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