Passagem Literaria da Consolacao

Rua da Consolacao, 2423, Consolacao

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Bookworms will find their comfy zone when they’re buried in the earth at this seemingly impromptu used-books store functioning really underground. Commuters at street level descend into a rabbit hole whose walls are swathed in a collage of magazine pages into a concrete pedestrian tunnel that connects both sides of Rua da Consolacao. Classical music blaring from a boom box out-screams the cacophony of transit outside and provides the soundtrack as students with backpacks and retirees with grocery bags browse the tidy, varied stock stacked on shelves running down the center of the tunnel, from Portuguese-language fiction to art books—a lot of them frequently discounted—with a rare-edition Picasso-prints book or two thrown in. The city-owned space also hosts art exhibits, on view in a display case running alongside a wall. Photo: Phuong-Cac Nguyen