In the heart of Berlin Moabit, inside a space that once served as a butcher shop, a patisserie, and a gallery, Sharmaine Lovegrove is curating a different kind of community. Her new venture, Chapters, is an independent English-language bookshop that eschews the traditional alphabetical order of the industry in favor of moods and ideas. Shelves are categorized by themes such as “Romantic & Ruinous” and “Power & Resistance,” creating a space where disparate voices from across the globe can speak to one another.
While many expatriates are drawn to the German capital for its nightlife or its reputation as a creative hub, Lovegrove’s trajectory was shaped by a more clinical catalyst. She describes her own experience as moving to Berlin because of a law nobody knows—a piece of structural policy regarding data and identity that fundamentally alters how diversity and inclusion are managed in the German publishing industry.
For Lovegrove, a London-born publisher and literary agent, the move was not about the “cheap but sexy” allure of the city, but about the accessibility of the book world and the specific gaps left by German legislation. Her career has spanned nearly three decades, evolving from a 16-year-old bookseller to a managing director at a major publishing house, and now to a partner at the literary agency International Creative Management (ICM), which maintains offices in Berlin, London, and Seoul.
The Data Gap: Why German Law Stalls Progress
The “boring reason” Lovegrove cites for her arrival in Berlin involves the rigid application of data protection laws. In Germany, the collection of data regarding ethnicity, class, or gender is strictly regulated and, in many professional contexts, effectively prohibited under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz). While these laws are designed to protect citizens from discrimination and state surveillance, Lovegrove argues they create a structural blind spot in the cultural sector.
The contrast with the United Kingdom is stark. In Britain, the industry has historically used data to identify systemic failures. Lovegrove points to 2018 figures showing that 99.2% of people working in UK publishing were white—a statistic that allowed the Publishers Association to set measurable, demonstrable goals for change. In Germany, because such data cannot be legally collected, the starting point for diversity remains unknown.
“There can’t be progress if you don’t know what the starting point is,” Lovegrove says. This legislative environment means that while the German book market remains robust—generating 9.88 billion euros in 2024, a 1.8% increase over the previous year—the internal demographics of who gets to tell those stories often remain stagnant and invisible.
From Dialogue Books to Global Agency
Lovegrove’s commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices is a thread that runs through her entire professional history. In 2009, she opened Dialogue Books, her first Berlin bookshop. That project eventually evolved into a UK publishing imprint and a division within Hachette, one of the world’s largest publishing groups, specifically dedicated to voices that the traditional industry frequently overlooked.
Her entry into publishing was serendipitous, sparked by a chance conversation at a party with a stranger who would eventually become her boss. Once inside the industry, the disparities became impossible to ignore. Lovegrove notes that of the 165,000 books published in the UK in 2016, fewer than 100 were written by people of color, and only one Black male debut was published.
Inspired by the legacy of Virago Press and its historical impact on women’s publishing, Lovegrove pivoted toward a role that allowed her to work across multiple houses. As a partner at ICM, she now operates at the intersection of global markets, seeking to bring a “core feeling of inclusion” to the way books are published internationally.
Chapters: A Thematic Approach to Storytelling
The opening of Chapters in Moabit marks a return to the tactile, human element of bookselling. The shop is designed as a “thematic” space, intentionally avoiding the dominant force of English by incorporating Persian, Arabic, and various dialects of Spanish and French, including Creole. This approach is intended to challenge the hierarchy of language in the international book trade.
The physical space itself is a nod to the history of the neighborhood. By preserving the original tile floors from the building’s time as a butcher shop, Lovegrove aims to build community through continuity rather than erasure. For her, the location in Moabit—a diverse district she compares to London’s Elephant and Castle—is essential to the shop’s identity.
Lovegrove believes that the current generation of readers is among the most knowledgeable she has encountered. She credits the rise of “BookTok” and social media for bringing a more diverse array of backgrounds into the world of reading for pleasure, signaling a shift toward a more democratic literary culture.
The Evolution of Lovegrove’s Literary Projects
| Project/Role | Focus | Key Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Dialogue Books (2009) | Independent Bookselling | Established a base for underrepresented voices in Berlin. |
| Hachette Division | Corporate Publishing | Integrated diversity-focused imprints into a global group. |
| ICM Partnership | Literary Agency | Global representation across Berlin, London, and Seoul. |
| Chapters (Present) | Thematic Bookselling | Community-centric, non-alphabetical curation in Moabit. |
The Analog Revival in a Digital Age
The emergence of Chapters coincides with a broader cultural trend toward “analog” experiences. Data suggests a growing hunger for offline connection, with book club events increasing by 31% on Eventbrite in 2024 compared to 2023, and silent reading parties growing by 23% in the same period. This shift suggests that as AI becomes more pervasive, the value of authentic, imperfect, and human-led storytelling increases.
For Lovegrove, the bookstore is more than a retail space; it is a site of resistance against the narrowing of human experience. Her obsession is not merely with books, but with “the stories we tell, the shape of our lives, our resistance, our power, our beauty, our failings.”
As the publishing industry continues to grapple with the tension between strict European data privacy laws and the need for diversity metrics, spaces like Chapters serve as practical experiments in inclusion. By focusing on themes and international voices rather than alphabetical categories, Lovegrove is attempting to bypass the structural stagnation caused by the laws she once followed to Berlin.
The next phase for Chapters involves expanding its role as a community hub through live author interviews and continued partnerships with international literary agencies to bring more non-Western narratives to the Berlin public.
Do you believe data collection is necessary for social progress in the arts, or should privacy laws remain absolute? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
