Surrounded by churches and schools, the Blues Point Bookshop in McMahons Point is often filled with parents and children browsing the bookshelves or sitting on lounges reading.

But Tampa, Alissa Nutting's controversial novel about a female teacher who preys on teenage boys, is one title they won't be finding in Helen Baxter's bookshop.

Taboo: Alissa Nutting.

Ms Baxter said she had decided not to stock the book, which the author has described as a contemporary version of Lolita - a novel that can be bought at her bookshop.

''Sometimes I take what I define as the moral high ground,'' she said. ''I just felt I'm in an environment where I couldn't personally promote this. It's such a complex issue and, right now, I'm surrounded by many churches and I see in the community the enormous stress of this ongoing problem of child abuse.''