When you walk into his Pages Bookstore and Cafe, a labor of love that he designed and decorated over a painstaking six months, a sense of peace washes over you. There’s a nook for reading outside under the shade of trees, and the interior is warm and welcoming. I could curl up in a corner for hours reading to the tunes of the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz with a steaming cup of coffee. It is like waking up in an alternate reality, a piece of the Levant transported into this corner of Istanbul. (bookriot)
Bookriot introduced us Pages Bookstore-Cafe in Istanbul. It is a place founded by a refugee, Samer al-Kadri, for refugees.
Pages provides a place where Syrian refugees can read books in Arabic as long as they like, and they can also borrow unlimited books for a small fee. But, more than that, the place presents them an atmosphere they miss a lot, a place which looks like their home country.
Check bookriot’s article for more.
Urban Issues 