User:Derek J Moore/sandbox/Estoril Books

Estoril Books are a small bookselling chain in Johannesburg. This is a family-owned business that consists of five bookshops out of the estimated 1,600 bookshops in South Africa, Today these stores are located in suburban malls, but Estoril Books has its roots in Hillbrow where it contributed to a strong literary presence. The first Estoril bookshop was established in 1963 on Pretoria street, next to Checkers. This store preceded the better known Exclusive Books, which established its first flagship store in Hillbrow a decade later, in 1973, next to the Hillbrow Record Centre.

Under Apartheid, it was the Estoril bookstore that avoided the censor's attention and earned the reputation as a counter-culture haven, where well- known authors, like Mark Gevisser could access a range of titles. Under apartheid, the Estoril Hillbrow bookshop acted as a literary port of entry, for European immigrants to access and read books. This echoes another literary genre, the "Jim comes to Jo’burg novels”, where Johannesburg is once seen as a place of action and opportunity, but then becomes a place of disillusionment and despair where the rural protagonists eek out a living in the urban metropolis.