De Zondvloed, named after the Biblical flood, occupies three floors of a former art deco theatre in the heart of Mechelen. The sprawling space is filled with novels, magazines and artist’s books.
Most of the stock is in Dutch, but they display a selection of English-language fiction on a table at the front. Three floors up, you find a coffee bar where you can sit at a window table looking down on the lively Onze-Lieve-Vrouwestraat.
The bookshop often organises literary meetings and poetry readings in this unusual setting.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
