The Bookshop on the Corner

The Bookshop on the Corner (2016) is a contemporary romance novel by Scottish author Jenny Colgan. The story follows Nina Redmond, a librarian who, after losing her job to austerity cuts in Birmingham, England, impulsively buys a van and moves to a remote Scottish village to start a mobile bookshop. As she builds her new life, Nina navigates friendships, romance, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. The novel explores themes including The Transformative Power of Place and Community, Redefining Happily Ever After as Self-Actualization, and Books as Conduits for Healing and Human Connection.

Colgan is a New York Times best-selling author known for her character-driven fiction, such as Little Beach Street Bakery. The Bookshop on the Corner—originally published in the United Kingdom as The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After—is set against the real-world backdrop of widespread public library closures in the UK during the 2010s. This socioeconomic context provides the catalyst for Nina’s journey from urban displacement to rural self-sufficiency, contrasting city life with the close-knit community of the Scottish Highlands. Colgan, who lives in Scotland, draws on the distinct cultural and geographical landscape of the region to frame her story of reinvention.

This guide references the 2016 William Morrow paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child abuse and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Nina Redmond, a 29-year-old introverted librarian in Birmingham, England, is devastated when her small branch library is slated for closure due to city-wide budget cuts. Her greatest joy is matching readers with the perfect books for them, a skill she fears will be obsolete in the new, centralized “multimedia experience zone” (3) scheduled to replace the library. As her cynical colleague, Griffin, grumbles about packing up the books, Nina begins “rescuing” volumes destined for disposal, filling her car. Her roommate, Surinder, forbids her from bringing any more books into their already overflowing house, fearing the building’s structural integrity is at risk.

During a mandatory team-building course led by an enthusiastic facilitator named Mungo, Nina confesses her long-held dream of owning a small bookshop. Mungo inspires her with the idea of a mobile bookshop, and Nina soon finds an online advertisement for a large, vintage van for sale in the remote Scottish village of Kirrinfief, but dismisses it as an impossible dream. After a disheartening pre-interview for a new library position, Nina feels her prospects are grim. Feeling desperate, she uses her vacation days to book a bus ticket to Scotland to see the van.

Nina is immediately captivated by the wild, beautiful Scottish landscape. In Kirrinfief, she finds the van is much larger than she imagined. Though its gruff owner, a farmer named Wullie Findhorn, is initially reluctant to sell the van to a woman, the friendly pub landlord, Alasdair, and his regulars intervene after Nina’s job interview in Birmingham goes poorly. Believing she plans to set up her mobile bookshop locally, they collectively buy the van and offer it to Nina, who accepts and makes plans to drive it back to Birmingham.

Nina returns to Kirrinfief to collect the van and finds Alasdair and his regulars are disappointed that she isn’t going to stay in Scotland. She also receives an email from the Birmingham council rejecting her permit to park the large vehicle at her house. Distraught and with no clear plan, she begins the long drive back to Birmingham at night. In the dark, she swerves to avoid a deer and stalls the van on a railway crossing just as a freight train approaches. Frozen in panic, she shuts her eyes and prepares for the inevitable collision, but the train’s driver, Jim, manages to stop the train just inches from Nina’s van. She meets the train’s engineer, a kind Latvian man named Marek, who calms her down. As Nina is in no state to drive, Marek helps her get the van to the side of the road and offers her a ride on the freight train to Birmingham. During the journey, they form a connection over their shared love for books and the Scottish landscape.

In Birmingham, a final dispute with Surinder over the sheer volume of Nina’s books culminates in a pile of them falling and cracking the ceiling. With nowhere else to go, Nina decides to relocate to Scotland. She sells her car and uses the money to rent a beautifully converted barn on a local farm, owned by a tall, grumpy, and recently separated farmer named Lennox. Marek and Jim help smuggle the remainder of Nina’s books from Birmingham on the freight train. With Surinder’s help, Nina cleans the van, installs shelves, and decorates the interior, christening it “The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After.”

The mobile bookshop is an immediate success. Nina and Surinder attend the Young Farmers’ dance, where Nina shares a surprising and graceful dance with the usually gruff Lennox. Nina hires Ainslee, a sullen, book-loving teenager from a troubled family, to help in the van. She grows concerned for Ainslee and her younger brother, Ben, and discovers that their mother is bedridden with multiple sclerosis (MS). Ainslee acts as the primary caregiver for both her mother and her brother, sacrificing her education. Meanwhile, Nina’s friendship with Marek deepens into a romantic, long-distance courtship as they exchange notes, books, and gifts left on a tree near the railway crossing.

Eventually, Marek arranges an in-person, midnight rendezvous at the train crossing. They share a romantic picnic and a passionate kiss, but are interrupted by Lennox, who is rushing an injured lamb to the vet. Lennox warns Nina that men like Marek, who work far from home, often have families they are supporting. When Nina travels to Birmingham for a book auction, Marek confesses that he has a girlfriend and a young son in Latvia. Heartbroken, Nina ends their romance. Later, she encounters Marek a final time where he reveals he is being fired and deported for his actions with the books.

Meanwhile, Nina’s attraction to Lennox grows. At the midsummer festival, they share a charged moment, but Nina, recently hurt, pulls away. Lennox reveals that his ex-wife, Kate, is demanding the sale of the farm in their divorce settlement, making it likely that Nina will have to leave her rented barn.

Determined to help Ainslee’s family, Nina calls social services to secure resources for Ainslee’s mother’s care and chastises Lennox for not intervening when one of his neighbors needs help. Lennox and his farmhands help repair the Clark family’s dilapidated home. During the work, Lennox’s lawyer tells Nina that Lennox had asked him to check on Marek’s deportation case, confirming that while Marek was forced to leave the country after losing his job, his departure was ultimately voluntary.

At a party hosted by Lennox, Nina and Lennox share a sexually charged kiss and agree to meet in her barn that night. The two begin a romantic relationship but eventually have a falling out over Lennox’s divorce and Nina’s expectations. Days later, with Nina considering a move to sell books in a new town, Lennox appears at her door to confess he cannot be without her. Just as they are about to embrace, his ex-wife, Kate, arrives.

A tense confrontation follows. Kate is hostile toward Nina until she enters the book van and is moved by the sight of her favorite childhood book, Up on the Rooftops. Nina successfully mediates between Kate and Lennox, proposing that Kate take the valuable, converted barn as her settlement in place of the farm. Although they agree, which leaves Nina without a home, Kate destroys Nina’s last copy of Up on the Rooftops as she leaves the farm.

Later, Lennox has to cut down the diseased tree by the railway, which Nina discovers has become a “lovers’ tree” for locals. As he prepares to do so, he and Nina finally admit their love for each other. He tells her a new tree will be planted and invites her to move into the main farmhouse with him.

The novel concludes the following winter. Nina is happily living with Lennox at the farmhouse, having found love and a true home. The bookshop is thriving, and Ainslee, with proper support, has successfully passed her exams. Surinder is now considering buying the barn to be closer to her own Scottish love interest. The story ends as Lennox presents Nina with a pristine copy of Up on the Rooftops, and she begins to read it to him by the fire.