Dua Lipa will not back down from book bans
It is no secret that Dua Lipa is more than a pop sensation. Less than a month after walking down the aisle at her lavish Sicilian wedding to Callum Turner, Lipa is once again making headlines—this time, for expanding our literary horizons by opening a library in Portugal.
The Manifesto Library will permanently open at Livraria Lello, a popular tourist location known for its connection to the Harry Potter franchise—its architecture almost as breathtaking as the selection of titles themselves, with its striking red staircase and stained glass skylight.
What titles will Dua Lipa spotlight?
Lipa, who is famed for her wide reading selection, is carefully curating 100 contemporary books that “[challenge] authority and continue to provoke reflection on freedom, identity, memory and critical thinking.”
Among the titles are Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Reginald Dwayne Betts’ “Felon,” alongside works by Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk. Classic titles include “1984,” “Fahrenheit 451,” and “The Catcher in the Rye.”
Lipa’s advocacy is not just in encouraging more people to read, but to read widely. She has been a prominent figure in promoting books in translation and books written by marginalized authors. Most recently, she has been pictured with queer Iranian American novelist Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel “Martyr!”
The assault on subversive literature
Atwood’s esteemed novel was banned from several schools in Florida, Texas, and Virginia, after it was deemed “unacceptable” by school boards. In 2023, Atwood wrote an essay published by The Atlantic entitled “Go Ahead and Ban My Book,” in which she was unperturbed by such efforts at censorship.
Despite her book being banned on “anti-Christian” grounds, Atwood says the inspiration for “The Handmaid’s Tale” was partially biblical, quoting Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Lipa understands the danger of suppressing books that explore the nature of power and the complexities of identity and experience. “The Manifesto Library stems from the belief that much more than a story is lost when a book is censored,” she writes on Instagram.
In spotlighting banned books, Lipa is reinforcing the need for critical thinking. In a time when even our own thinking can be outsourced to AI, Lipa is refusing to renounce the sparkling dimensions of human minds, the brilliance that is brought about only through time, exertion, and care.
Lipa and Atwood heed the same warnings of what the world will come to without thoughtful reading and critical engagement—a world of “ravenous wolves,” of violence and impunity, and of blind subscriptions to ideologies that authorize the mass destruction of a nation, a planet, a people.
Here’s a guide to some of Dua Lipa’s featured titles—all of which fall under the themes of power, control, voice, and memory.
1. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
Published in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopian novel remains as relevant today as it was then. In 2017, it was adapted into a highly successful TV series starring Elisabeth Moss.
2. “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir
Widely known for its central thesis “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” De Beauvoir’s foundational feminist text will also be featured in Lipa’s library.
3. “Felon” by Reginald Dwayne Betts
A poetry collection by legal scholar and prison reform advocate Reginald Dwayne Betts. Betts was 16 when he was prosecuted as an adult for an armed carjacking; he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
4. “1984” by George Orwell
Another entry of dystopian speculative fiction, Orwell’s classic is certain to have made the list. A novel that chillingly explores totalitarianism and mass surveillance, it makes the perfect addition to Lipa’s collection.
5. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” follows the young Holden Caulfield after he is dismissed from prep school on bad behavior, exploring themes of alienation, disillusionment, and grief.
6. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Color Purple” follows the life of Celie, a poor, Black woman in rural Georgia, as she survives horrific forms of violence and sexual abuse in the American South.
7. “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s 2019 debut novel is a heartwrenching epistolary novel written from the perspective of a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother.
