Terry Prone: Lucia Berlin’s words leapt from the page in the world’s oldest bookshop

Each and every one of what are described as 'short stories' reads like a faithful account of an episode in her own life. No pretension. No philosophising. No concealment.

It was while browsing in Lisbon’s Livraria Bertrand that Terry Prone first encountered Lucia Berlin’s extraordinary 2015 collection, ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’.

A few weeks ago weeks ago, a colleague asked if I knew the location of the oldest functioning bookshop in the world. I did not, and admitted it. He told me it’s in one of my favourite cities, Lisbon.

Livraria Bertrand has served the book-buying public in the Portuguese capital since 1732 when it was founded by a man named Pedro Faure. A cunning plan on the part of the colleague emerged. We should get an early flight to Lisbon, visit the bookstore, maybe take in a couple of the high-end shoe shops Lisbon offers, then take a flight home.