A Novel Idea is the one-and-only modern book shop and gift shop in Tanzania with stores in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, as well as a new online store providing international shipment options and various pick-up locations.

A Novel Idea’s roots began in, what is now, Oysterbay, where Sarah and Paul Clithero, encouraged by fellow expat friends and Tanzanians in need of books, installed a 20’ shipping container, on the center square a week before Christmas. The container was fitted with large glass windows, $20,000 worth of books with a one-way line through them and topped with a mikuti roof. The venture proved so successful that when the area got developed, Sarah and Paul got a fixed shop in the nearby Msasani Slipway.