Lucy Yu wasn’t sure if she had smoke in her lungs or was having an anxiety attack. Five days earlier, on the Fourth of July, she had raced out of her bookstore in Manhattan’s Chinatown as it filled with smoke. She had assembled a team of friends to pack up the books that weren’t damaged beyond repair and put them in storage. She walked outside and sat down on a stoop next door, as her friends comforted her and brought her water. Her once-vibrant store, Yu & Me Books, needed a gut renovation to remove mold and smoke residue.

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Persons: Lucy Yu wasn’t, Yu Locations: Chinatown