After You (28 page)
Authors: Julie Buxbaum
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Crime, #Literary, #death, #England, #Notting Hill (London, #Family & Relationships, #Americans - England, #Bereavement, #Grief, #England), #Popular American Fiction, #Americans, #Psychological, #Fiction - General, #Psychological Fiction, #Best Friends, #Murder Victims' Families, #Murder victims' families - England, #Life change events
Acknowledgments
Thank you first and foremost to my agent, Elaine Koster, for her tireless support, encouragement, and wisdom, and to my editor, Susan Kamil, whose deft hand and insight coaxed this book into existence. I feel so lucky and honored to work with these two fabulous women.
My deepest gratitude to all of the folks at Dial and Random House, and, in particular, Noah Eaker, Nita Taublib, Cynthia Lasky, Kathy Lord, and Theresa Zoro.
Francesca Liversidge and the whole Transworld team, thank you so much for your support.
Special thanks to Chandler Crawford, David Grossman, and Helen Heller.
Thanks also to Mark Haskell Smith for being my trusted and brilliant first reader; Richard Kay for teaching me about the intricacies of the British press; Roger Watts for showing me the actual Secret Garden; the Third Street School in Los Angeles for letting me observe; Halee Hochman for answering a million questions about eight-year-olds; Naomi Goldstein for both the professor’s and the psychologist’s angle; Lena Greenberg for her encouragement; and Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina’s book
The Annotated Secret Garden
, which has been an invaluable resource.
And, of course, this book is, in many ways, a love letter to
The Secret Garden
, and so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Frances Hodgson Burnett for giving the world her masterpiece, and me countless hours of reading delight. Her book continues to be a respite whenever I need one most.
Much love to all of the Flore clan, of which I am very proud to now officially be a member.
Finally, I wish there were words to express how grateful I feel for the love and support of my three favorite men. To Dad, Josh, and Indy, all of my love and thanks.
About the Author
JULIE BUXBAUM is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School. Her first novel,
The Opposite of Love
, has been translated into eighteen languages, and optioned to film by Twentieth Century Fox. She currently lives in London.
After You
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Julie R. Buxbaum, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by The Dial Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DIAL PRESS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buxbaum, Julie.
After you / Julie Buxbaum. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33858-1
1. Murder victims’ families—England—Fiction. 2. Americans—
England—Fiction. 3. Best friends—Fiction. 4. Grief—Fiction.
5. Life change events—Fiction. 6. Notting Hill (London, England)—
Fiction. 7. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.U98A7 2009
813′.6—dc22 2009009634
v3.0
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49