At 28, Émilie Gruffat has decided to embark on a new chapter in her professional life. After several years exploring all facets of the bookselling profession, she is launching a personal adventure: opening her own independent bookstore, “Au sommet des mots” (At the Summit of Words), in Cluses. Driven by her passion for books, her desire to create a space that reflects her personality, and the challenge of opening quickly before the Christmas holidays, she shares her journey, her inspirations, and her plans to bring literature to life at the heart of her bookstore.
My name is Émilie Gruffat, I am 28 years old. I have been a bookseller for 7 years now, and I wanted to open my own bookstore.
The moment when everything becomes possible
I wanted to create an independent bookstore after working for 6 years with Pascal in La Roche-sur-Foron. This experience allowed me to discover all facets of the profession and made me want to build my own project.
The biggest challenge for me was to carry out the work to refresh the place and make it a space that reflects me, while opening quickly, especially for the Christmas holidays.
His literary crush
The book I can recommend without hesitation is Esther's Letters by Cécile Pivot. It's a beautiful story about two people who write letters to each other because they can't express their feelings out loud.
What if we brought the authors in?
I would love to be able to organize my own meetings with authors: to bring them to the bookstore to discuss their writing projects, the publication of their works, and more broadly the world of publishing.
Themes
