17 August 2026 (Hina) – Publisher and author Ivan Sršen has opened a bookshop and Zagreb’s first second-hand bookshop specialising in English-language books, located in the courtyard of the Sedmica café
The shop has around 6,000 titles on its shelves, including approximately 3,500 books in English and 2,500 in Croatian, Sršen told Hina.
The bookshop is located in the courtyard of Sedmica café, which has been a gathering place for Zagreb’s alternative arts scene for 35 years. Sršen said the bookshop fits naturally into the space and complements the traditional Lower Town courtyard setting.
Sršen discovered his passion for working with books while studying, when he worked at the Konzor bookshop. He said it was the most enjoyable job he had and that he had always wanted to return to it.
His publishing house, Sandorf, has been operating for 18 years and has published more than 400 titles, making the opening of a bookshop a logical next step, he said.
The second-hand section was created in the spirit of Konzor, which combined a bookshop and antiquarian bookshop and stocked both new and used books.
The new shop currently has around 6,000 titles, of which 3,500 are in English and about 2,500 in Croatian. The English-language books are second-hand, while the Croatian titles are new.
Sršen said he was inspired to open Zagreb’s first English-language antiquarian bookshop by neighbouring countries, where such shops are common.
“Most of us read English as a kind of lingua franca of literature today, while many people, particularly young people in Zagreb and Croatia, read in English,” Sršen said, explaining the decision to open the shop.
Another reason was the opportunity to offer books that are rarely found on the shelves of other bookshops or antiquarian shops.
Among the more unusual titles in the collection are a first edition of the translation of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Castle to Castle, a first edition of Harold Pinter’s Plays, a 1906 book on Greek philosophy, and an edition of Oliver Twist dating from 1922 or 1923.
Sršen said the shop is focused on quality Croatian fiction and non-fiction, as well as some of the best literary translations available, including works by Milan Kundera and Thomas Bernhard in Croatian, alongside popular international authors such as Haruki Murakami.
The shop also accepts orders for books from elsewhere in Croatia.
Books from Amsterdam warehouses
Between 3,500 and 4,000 books for the English-language second-hand section weree of Europe’s historic book capitals
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Sršen purchased the books in bulk. He explained that it was not possible to inspect every individual book before buying, so he assessed the selection by randomly opening several boxes.
Antiquarian booksellers and second-hand book dealers often have large warehouses where books are already sorted according to their sales potential. In one warehouse containing around 100 boxes, for example, Sršen opened four or five boxes, examined their contents and used them to decide which boxes to purchase.
Because of this method, he could not know exactly what he was buying, but he was able to estimate the overall quality and diversity of the selection.
Once the books arrived in Zagreb, they had to be sorted, assessed and individually priced for the shelves.
Sršen said every book eventually passed through his hands and that he was very pleased with the final selection.
He believes the shop’s biggest advantage is its large selection of English-language books that cannot be found elsewhere in Zagreb or Croatia.
“Most of our visitors during these first ten or so days have, naturally, been local people who primarily read in Croatian. However, we mostly sell books in English because these books are not available in other bookshops in Zagreb,” Sršen said.
The space has also been designed to host literary events, with book presentations and other programmes scheduled to begin in September.
In cooperation with Sedmica, Sandorf operates the space as a bookshop-café. Visitors can take a book, sit outside in the courtyard and read without any obligation to buy it.
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Ivan Sršen has been a co-owner and editor at Sandorf, a publishing house and agency representing Croatian writers abroad, since 2007.
Source: www.croatiaweek.com
