It's 1915, The Arcadia rare bookshop is the bookshop of the three sisters Applebaum, Celia, Olivia and Daphne, on Manhattan's book row, a street full of bookstores. The bookstores are suffering from the wrath of a certain Mr. Comstock, who suspects in a nazi-like way every bookstore and other kind of store to sell or trade in 'obscene lewd, or lascivious” publications. His laws are strict and his men raid shops often, which is the biggest fear of the sisters Applebaum and every other store in the street. Things get even more dangerous when Celia joins an undercover group, led by Margareth Stanger, who secretly print and distribute publications on women's health and health rights, and hide them within cookbooks and sewing patterns, and they have to work more secretly as the raids are all around them.. Her sisters don't know about her secret activities, as they are busy running the store. The three live in fear that the dreaded Anthony Comstock and his agents of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice will endanger their livelihood..
The Sisters of Book Row is a book about three sisters who run a bookstore amidst strict rules made up by men. They are living in a time when women's rights where next to nothing. Before reading this book, I never knew that what Comstock did in this fictional book really happened and the booksellers where truly courageous in silently rebbeling against the laws. But is is this enough to make this a good and entertaining read? Yes and no. Some parts in this book where good, some where less, and somehow this book gave me more of a feel of a dusty bookstore in old London then in New York. The three sisters have all their specific background and characters which where potrayed nicely. But the end was quite messy, and the end had quite some loose ends. The story had a nice promise, but the slow pace and messy storyline made it a less good novel then it could be.
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