The Bookstore at the Corner of the World

The Bookstore at the Corner of the World: One night I was returning home by metro - the rail was out of order and we were announced to leave the train. I followed the other passengers and got out of the station. It was midnight, and we were in a very distant corner of Washington. A bus appeared suddenly from nowhere and we took places in it. I was expecting the bus will go down the Connecticut Avenue, to reach Dupont Circle. It took a detour, and we found ourselves on the Corner of the World: 18th Street, full of small restaurants, Latino, Turkish, Asian, full of people - the immigrants crossroad of Washington, I was the first time there.

I came back the next day to visit the place, and I discovered Editorial El Mundo: you were passing through a hole in the wall, and your were among the books of Marquez, of Borges, of Vargas Llosa. Books are moving sands - you open a book always at another page and get lost inside. Editorial El Mundo was always a journey that had no end at sight.

Now the bookstore closes. It was sold, and the new owner will move it in another city, Manassas, in Virginia. There is a nostalgic column here in today's Washington Post.