Librairie Papeterie DSM – A bookshop with a history

The D.S.M. bookshop, which is well over half a century old since it was founded in 1947, is located next to the Casablanca Central Market, at the very beginning of the pedestrian zone.

Do you know why it is called that? Because “D.S.M.” are the initials of its founder, Mr De Silva Michel, a scholar and great lover of literature. He had started his literary activities long before, since, in addition to his farm, he supplied the schools of the Protectorate as early as the 1930s. After independence, the bookshop expanded and left its original location on rue Maréchal, next to the current Place des Nations-Unies, to move to boulevard Mohammed V (at the time boulevard de la Gare).

It is a French-speaking bookshop, which offers the classic range of a traditional Moroccan bookshop, with a significant proportion of books and school supplies, titles from local publishers, all the latest literary news and beautiful books, mainly about Morocco.

It is also one of the bookshops in Casablanca where you can find a good range of English books, with about 20% of the 20,000 titles in stock in English, and one of the two windows of the bookshop dedicated to the language of Shakespeare. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can always order “the” book you want, as the bookshop itself places orders directly with foreign suppliers. But you may have to wait a little while, as the delivery times are long.

The current owner, Othman Akdim, is just as passionate about books as the founder, whom he knew as a customer and then as an employer. He took over the bookshop when Mr. De Silva Michel left in 1970. This was to be the start of a “French-speaking book empire in Morocco”, since he created an import and distribution company, the C.D.P.L. and a second bookshop, the Préface bookshop.

By subscribing to his Facebook page, you can be notified of events organised by the bookshop, such as book signings and meetings with Moroccan authors. Othman Akdim does everything he can to give young Moroccans a taste for reading: before Covid, he organised exhibitions in various schools; he is also behind the Cigogne Volubile (Talkative Stork), a decentralised children’s book fair, which has been held every year in Meknes since 2010, in cooperation with the French Institute.

A literary passion that can be found in this bookshop, under the arcades of one of the most beautiful boulevards in Casablanca!

On the map

A typo or syntax error? You can select the text and hit Ctrl+Enter to send us a message. Thank you! If this post interested you, maybe you can also leave a comment. We'd love to exchange with you !