The new collection is housed inside Livraria Lello’s cultural auditorium, a striking venue designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza. Curated around 100 specific titles, the library organizes its books into four core contemporary themes: Power, Control, Voice, and Memory. Rather than acting as a static archive of banned media, the project is envisioned as a living cultural space designed to foster public reading, debate, and community programming.
The initial collection features celebrated and heavily debated literature, including Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Felon. Many included works have faced challenges, restrictions, or outright bans across global school districts due to their themes of race, sexuality, and identity.
“The Manifesto Library is a dream partnership,” Dua Lipa stated, noting that the century-old bookstore is the perfect home for the initiative. “Here you will find one hundred books that ask questions, or have been questioned. This library is a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what book they are allowed to read.”
Francisca Pedro Pinto, Head of Brand at Livraria Lello, echoed the sentiment, stating, “For 120 years, Livraria Lello has been built on a simple conviction: the book is a technology of freedom. The Manifesto Library grows from that belief.”
The grand inauguration takes place this evening as a key highlight of BABELL – City of Books, a new international literary festival. Renowned authors represented in the library, including Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk, will be in attendance for the opening, which features a social “Book Tasting” event pairing literature with Portuguese wines.
