Mystery in the stacks at Books & Company

Laura Matheson uncovers how a wayward shipment meant for Nairobi ended up in Copenhagen. The mistake sparked curiosity, conversation, and an unexpected spotlight on African literature.

Photographs: Laura Matheson

Text: Laura Matheson

A chance encounter with a bookshop in Nairobi sounds like something out of a detective story. And, in a way, it is.

In spring 2025, five mysterious boxes arrived at the international English-language bookstore Books & Company. The Copenhagen-area shop receives near-daily shipments, but the size of this delivery from a New Jersey publisher and its atypical delivery method (via freight forwarder instead of courier) immediately caused confusion.

The bewilderment grew as the boxes were opened, revealing up to 20 copies of novels like The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden and Stay with Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò, along with nonfiction works and titles for young adults and children. Outside of special orders for book clubs, schools, or libraries, Books & Company owner Isabella Mousavizadeh Smith never requests more than three copies of a title. As she said: “The way we curate the store gives us the possibility of having lots of different titles; we don’t have big stacks of bestsellers.”

While the team had seen orders go off course before, they had been easily resolved occurrences, like a misdelivery for the bookstore down the street, and never at this scale. How had this shipment ended up at Books & Company? And what would they do with all these books they hadn’t ordered?

From Nairobi to Copenhagen

Contacting the publisher revealed that the shipment was intended for a bookshop in Nairobi, Kenya. Returning the five boxes to New Jersey or forwarding them to their intended destination was logistically complicated and prohibitively expensive. (The publisher re-sent the order to Nairobi at no charge.)

Viewing the misdirected shipment as a gift instead of a burden, the team created an engaging window display - and customers responded with incredible interest. As Isabella and I sat at the bookshop window on a rainy morning, several customers asked about the display. “It’s drawn people in,” Isabella observed. “It’s given them something to ask questions about.”

Although political and cultural isolationism is encouraging many people not to look beyond their own borders, Isabella suspected that people in Denmark would be interested in reading new authors who might not be so well known in Europe. And she was right.

The shipment’s 23 titles just scratch the surface of a fascinating, deep and diverse treasure of literature from countries often viewed only through a Western lens. “You look at this and think you actually don’t know anything about African literature. You know just the tip of the iceberg,” said Isabella. “This offered the possibility to show everyone that there is such a huge treasure trove of culture across the African continent.”

"The books have drawn people in. It’s given them something to ask questions about."

A cultural connection

When Isabella examined the titles meant for Nairobi, she considered how heavily “we look to the US or the UK as beacons of culture, and there’s this huge continent that we know so little about.” She continued, “This felt so authentic. It wasn’t us trying to find something from an African country. This reflects what a bookstore in Nairobi would order. That’s impossible to find without actually travelling there.”

Kenyans living in and around Copenhagen have stopped in to see titles from their homeland. “It’s hard being so far from home,” reflected Isabella. “When there’s a display like this, it can feel as though someone sees you, someone sees your culture.”

Books & Company shared the tale through their social media channels and email newsletter, where it reached Iris, the rep from the publisher in New Jersey. Iris forwarded the newsletter to Joan, her counterpart in Nairobi, who recognised the titles. Joan then reached out to the Books & Company team to express her joy that the order she’d placed for the bookshop in Nairobi had found a new audience. Sadly, Joan did not disclose the name of the bookshop.

Although the identity of the Kenyan bookshop remains unknown to the Books & Company team, the mystery of how the books had come to be in Denmark rather than Kenya has been solved. A publisher’s administrative error meant books meant for Nairobi influenced a community more than 6,700 km away, and titles like Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya, Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta, and China's Second Continent by Howard W. French now sit on Danish bookshelves.

In addition to offering about 7,000 titles in store, Books & Company hosts several events a month, organises book clubs, and makes excellent coffee. While titles from the wayward shipment no longer grace their window display, Books & Company is happy to order them (search ‘chance encounter’ on their website at booksandcompany.dk for the full list). Best of all, there’s no detective work necessary for the staff when the orders arrive in the store!