For Lucy Yu, who runs what’s believed to be New York City’s first Asian American woman-owned bookstore, losing her brick-and-mortar business was akin to losing a child. But since 4 July of this year, when a blaze engulfed the Chinatown building that housed Yu & Me Books, the 29-year-old has had little time to process her grief.
Within hours of the blaze, she shifted into rebuild mode: right after firefighters brought the fire under control, Yu and a friend ran into the store and hauled inventory into plastic bags and tarps. They salvaged a couple thousand books from the wreckage, just under half of the collection. The effort left Yu coughing and short of breath for the next two weeks.
