Esme Garland who has come to America on an art scholarship, is living above a deli on Broadway and spends time browsing in a bookshop called The Owl. The owner and staff of THE BOOKSTORE are friendly to a like-minded person. This English girl has a boyfriend although she hasn't been in New York long, and while ravenously eating in a Jewish diner with him, Esme realises that she might be pregnant. Surely not, aged twenty-three, far from home, still a student. This isn't what she had in mind at all.

Having had the confirmation she dreaded, Esme steels herself to tell Mitchell. But first Mitchell comes out with a line about how it's not so great between them any more and he's sure there are other men out there who will love her. Esme says nothing, and with her hormones in a mess, starts trying to make decisions about her future. If she has a baby, it should be a welcomed baby, with two parents, not a resented child of a single mother. The only one she can talk to is her friend Stella, a photographer, who insists that she think about her real choices. Esme, who is not supposed to work in America, would have to pay all the baby's costs including more rent and childcare while she studied. Taking a deep breath, Esme tells the bookstore owner her situation. She sounds like their perfect employee.

The bookstore is under pressure of course, from Barnes and Noble and the internet stores, and like Esme I would hate to see all the independent treasure troves for browsers disappear. Many visitors don't buy, in the story, and street dwelling men do cleaning work after hours for a few dollars. Mitchell reappears in Esme's life but I didn't warm to him, the other characters being much more responsible and genuine. We see Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrated as time passes, while the growing baby comes to mean more to Esme than her studies. She's a chatty girl, confident and enjoying her time in New York, meeting now a fair share of strange characters as well as librarians and art curators. She also gets to go on a book scouting trip, finding books left for years in storage and worth a lot of money.

I liked Esme, and I left the book wishing her well. In her situation, who knows what choices we would make? THE BOOKSTORE by Deborah Meyler brings to life a city full of character.