Dua Lipa Opens 'Banned' Book Library in Portugal, Draws Conservative Criticisms

Last month, British-Kosovar pop singer Dua Lipa opened a library for "banned" books in Portugal, prompting criticism from American conservative outlets this week.

The Details: Lipa, who has run the literary outlet and book club Service95 since 2021, opened The Manifesto Library at the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto on June 27. The library permanently hosts 100 books, including 1984 by George Orwell, Patriot by Alexei Navalny, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

Key Quotes: Service95 says "many" of the books "have been prohibited from publication, stripped from school curricula or removed from library systems in an attempt to stop someone, somewhere from reading them." In a quote written on the library wall, Lipa said, "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."

From the Left: Earlier in July, Ron Charles (Left), who wrote about literature for The Washington Post (Lean Left) from 2005 until 2026, visited the library and shared his experience. Charles said the library is in the basement and not advertised in the store. Guests, who he said are capped at fewer than a dozen at a time, must ask a store employee to be directed to it. Of his visit, Charles concluded, "The experience, so carefully designed and controlled, is strangely beautiful, a reminder of how fortunate we are and how much we have to lose if these books are someday available only in a guarded basement for paying customers."

From the Right: On July 14 and 15, respectively, The Washington Examiner (Lean Right) and National Review (Right) published opinions criticizing the library. Timothy P. Carney of the Examiner said Lipa's library "sounds transgressive and edgy until you see her list." "Out of these 100 books, about 15 of them were required reading for me in middle school and high school," he added. Carney suggested the library should carry The Bell Curve by Charles Murray, Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier, When Harry Became Sally by Ryan T. Anderson, and his own book, Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be.

Abigail Anthony of National Review said she personally owns 12 of the books at The Manifesto Library and has read several others. Anthony said it is "refreshing that a celebrity is encouraging an admirable activity – namely reading – to her (intimidatingly large) fan base" but that the idea that the books in her library "somehow 'challenge power,' 'resist censorship,' and 'amplify' silenced voices — is just absurd." She also noted that many of the books are extremely commercially successful and concluded that if "'banned books' are available in a bookstore or library, then they are not 'banned' in any meaningful sense."

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