Still Me

Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.

As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart—wherever that may lead?

Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she discovers who she is and who she was always meant to be—and learns to live boldly in her brave new world.Praise for Still Me:

“Delightful.” –People

“Full of charming antics. . . Entertaining.” –Associated Press
 
“Still Me offers a warm conclusion to the Me Before You trilogy. . . resulting in the best entry in the trilogy yet. . . Moyes has crafted a clear-eyed tale of self-discovery and the sacrifice required to live a life honestly in pursuit of the things you love. [It will] keep you sighing with delight to the very last page. A.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Jojo’s work never fails to bring a smile to my face with her honesty, humour and empathy about what it is to be human—[Still Me is] a must read!” —Emilia Clarke

“While the series may have started off as a romance, Jojo Moyes has turned Louisa Clark’s story into one about learning to be, and to love, yourself.” —Bustle

“You sobbed through Me Before You. You sped through After You. And now, Lou is back in Still Me. . . don’t miss this funny, romantic third installment.” —HelloGiggles

“Entertaining, often very funny. . .” —Newsday

“Moyes’s easy way of making you instantly care for her characters (deeply) prevails.” —goop

Praise for After You:

‟Jojo Moyes has a hit with After You.” —USA Today

“Think Elizabeth Bennet after Darcy’s eventual death; Alice after Gertrude; Wilbur after Charlotte. The ‘aftermath’ is a subject most writers understandably avoid, but Moyes has tackled it and given readers an affecting, even entertaining female adventure tale about a broken heroine who ultimately rouses herself and falls in love again, this time with the possibilities in her own future.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR 

“The genius of Moyes . . . [is that she] peers deftly into class issues, social mores, and complicated relationships that raise as many questions as they answer. And yet there is always resolution. It’s not always easy, it’s not always perfect, it’s sometimes messy and not completely satisfying. But sometimes it is.” —Bobbi Dumas, NPR.org

“Charming.” —People 

“Expect tears and belly laughs from Me Before You’s much-anticipated sequel.” —Cosmopolitan 

“Moyes is at her most charming here, writing with a sense of humorous affection about family dynamics among working-class Brits. . . . A Maeve Binchy for the 21st century.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] heart-tugger.” —Good Housekeeping

“Like its predecessor [Me Before You], After You is a comic and breezy novel that also tackles bigger, more difficult subjects, in this case grief and moving on. . . . We all lose what we love at some point, but in her poignant, funny way, Moyes reminds us that even if it’s not always happy, there is an ever after.” —Miami Herald

“Once again, Moyes delivers a heart-wrenching and relatable book about love and loss that will stay with you long after you’ve finished.” —InStyle.com
 
“Moyes wisely knows that life-changing events don’t always change our lives for the better. . . . After You may not be the sequel you expect, but it is the sequel you needed.” —Entertainment Weekly

Praise for Me Before You:

“A hilarious, heartbreaking, riveting novel . . . I will stake my reputation on this book.” —Anne Lamott, People

“When I finished this novel, I didn’t want to review it: I wanted to reread it. . . . An affair to remember.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An unlikely love story . . . To be devoured like candy, between tears.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Funny and moving but never predictable.” —USA Today (four stars)Jojo Moyes is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, Still Me, Paris for One and Other Stories, After You, One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, Me Before You, The Last Letter from Your Lover, The Horse Dancer, Silver Bay, The Ship of Brides, and The Peacock Emporium. The Last letter From Your Lover will be released as a major motion picture by Netflix in July. She lives with her husband and three children in Essex, England.

1. In NYC, Lou meets Josh Ryan, Will’s charming—and very much alive—doppelganger. Understandably, Lou is enchanted by him, and their friendship quickly evolves to something more, until Lou comes to her senses. If you were in Lou’s shoes, would you have wanted to connect with Josh, or would you have stayed away specifically because the similarities with Will Traynor were so clear?

2. Sam and Lou’s relationship is strained because of the long distance between them, though they try to make it work. Have you ever been in a long-distance relationship? Did it work out? Why or why not? How do you think Lou and Sam could have done better by each other in the relationship? 

3. Margot De Witt is the epitome of a difficult neighbor, or so it appears, until Lou has the opportunity to get know Margot better. Soon, Lou realizes that Margot has an incredible life story, and that they in fact share a love of fashion and clothes. Have you ever had to reconsider your perceptions of someone once you learned more about him or her? Might you have disregarded someone who later became a friend? If so, what happened?

4. Still Me is Lou’s story, but it also tackles themes of class, reinvention, and rediscovery. How do these themes appear in the book? 

5. As Agnes’s personal assistant, Lou must take on any number of tasks—from scheduling her calendar to attending social events as Agnes’s “friend.” But Lou also finds herself caring for Agnes’s psychological wellbeing. Have you ever been in a relationship—through work, a friend, a partner, or family—in which you were the one doing most or all of the emotional labor? 

6. Lou comes to New York as an outsider who is fascinated but also slightly daunted by the bustling, hustling city. Did her “fish out of water” story ring true to you? What did you learn about living in New York City that you’d never known before?

7. When Lou must choose how she wants to live, she must choose between life in England versus New York, an uber-wealthy world in which she is a bit of a hanger-on versus a less-glamorous life in which she immerses herself in the funky world of vintage fashion. Were you surprised by her choices?

Chapter 1
 
It was the mustache that reminded me I was no longer in England: a solid, gray millipede firmly obscuring the man’s upper lip; a Village People mustache, a cowboy mustache, the miniature head of a broom that meant business. You just didn’t get that kind of mustache at home.

I couldn’t tear my eyes from it. “Ma’am?”

The only person I had ever seen with a mustache like that at home was Mr. Naylor, our maths teacher, and he collected Digestive crumbs in his—we used to count them during algebra.

“Ma’am?”

“Oh. Sorry.”

The man in the uniform motioned me forward with a flick of his stubby finger. He did not look up from his screen. I waited at the booth, long‑haul sweat drying gently into my dress. He held up his hand, waggling four fat fingers. This, I grasped after several seconds, was a demand for my passport.

“Name.”

“It’s there,” I said.

“Your name, ma’am.”

“Louisa Elizabeth Clark.” I peered over the counter. “Though I never use the Elizabeth bit. Because my mum realized after they named me that that would make me Lou Lizzy. And if you say that really fast it sounds like lunacy. Though my dad says that’s kind of fitting. Not that I’m a lunatic. I mean, you wouldn’t want lunatics in your country. Hah!” My voice bounced nervously off the Plexiglas screen.

The man looked at me for the first time. He had solid shoulders and a gaze that could pin you like a Tazer. He did not smile. He waited until my own faded.

“Sorry,” I said. “People in uniform make me nervous.”

I glanced behind me at the immigration hall, at the snaking queue that had doubled back on itself so many times it had become an impenetrable, restless sea of people. “I think I’m feeling a bit odd from standing in that queue. That is honestly the longest queue I’ve ever stood in. I’d begun to wonder whether to start my Christmas list.”

“Put your hand on the scanner.”

“Is it always that size?”

“The scanner?” He frowned.

“The queue.”

But he was no longer listening. He was studying something on his screen. I put my fingers on the little pad. And then my phone dinged.

Mum: Have you landed?

I went to tap an answer with my free hand but he turned sharply toward me. “Ma’am, you are not permitted to use cell phones in this area.”

“It’s just my mum. She wants to know if I’m here.” I surreptitiously tried to press the thumbs‑up emoji as I slid the phone out of view.

“Reason for travel?”

What is that? came Mum’s immediate reply. She had taken to texting like a duck to water and could now do it faster than she could speak. Which was basically warp speed.
 
—You know my phone doesn’t do the little pictures. Is that an SOS? Louisa tell me you’re okay.
 
“Reasons for travel, ma’am?” The mustache twitched with irritation.

He added, slowly: “What are you doing here in the United States?”

“I have a new job.”

“Which is?”

“I’m going to work for a family in New York. Central Park.”

Just briefly, the man’s eyebrows might have raised a millimeter. He checked the address on my form, confirming it. “What kind of job?”

“It’s a bit complicated. But I’m sort of a paid companion.”

“A paid companion.”

“It’s like this. I used to work for this man. I was his companion, but I would also give him his meds and take him out and feed him. That’s not as weird as it sounds, by the way—he had no use of his hands. It wasn’t like something pervy. Actually my last job ended up as more than that, because it’s hard not to get close to people you look after and Will—the man—was amazing and we . . . Well, we fell in love.” Too late, I felt the familiar welling of tears. I wiped at my eyes briskly. “So I think it’ll be sort of like that. Except for the love bit. And the feeding.”

The immigration officer was staring at me. I tried to smile. “Actually, I don’t normally cry talking about jobs. I’m not like an actual lunatic, despite my name. Hah! But I loved him. And he loved me. And then he . . . Well, he chose to end his life. So this is sort of my attempt to start over.” The tears were now leaking relentlessly, embarrassingly, from the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t seem to stop them. I couldn’t seem to stop anything. “Sorry. Must be the jet lag. It’s something like two o’clock in the morning in normal time, right? Plus I don’t really talk about him anymore. I mean, I have a new boyfriend. And he’s great! He’s a paramedic! And hot! That’s like winning the boyfriend lottery, right? A hot paramedic?”

I scrabbled around in my handbag for a tissue. When I looked up the man was holding out a box. I took one. “Thank you. So, anyway, my friend Nathan—he’s from New Zealand—works here and he helped me get this job and I don’t really know what it involves yet, apart from looking after this rich man’s wife who gets depressed. But I’ve decided this time I’m going to live up to what Will wanted for me, because before I didn’t get it right. I just ended up working in an airport.”
I froze. “Not—uh—that there’s anything wrong with working at an airport! I’m sure immigration is a very important job. Really important. But I have a plan. I’m going to do something new every week that I’m here and I’m going to say yes.”

“Say yes?”

“To new things. Will always said I shut myself off from new experiences. So this is my plan.”

The officer studied my paperwork. “You didn’t fill the address section out properly. I need a zip code.”

He pushed the form toward me. I checked the number on the sheet that I had printed out and filled it in with trembling fingers. I glanced to my left, where the queue at my section was growing restive. At the front of the next queue a Chinese family was being questioned by two officials. As the woman protested, they were led into a side room. I felt suddenly very alone.

 The immigration officer peered at the people waiting. And then, abruptly, he stamped my passport. “Good luck, Louisa Clark,” he said.

I stared at him. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I smiled. “Oh, thank you! That’s really kind. I mean, it’s quite weird being on the other side of the world by yourself for the first time, and now I feel a bit like I just met my first nice new person and—”

“You need to move along now, ma’am.”

“Of course. Sorry.”

I gathered up my belongings and pushed a sweaty frond of hair from my face.

“And, ma’am . . .”

“Yes?” I wondered what I had got wrong now.

He didn’t look up from his screen. “Be careful what you say yes to.”US

Additional information

Dimensions	0.9400 × 5.4400 × 8.3800 in
Series	Me Before You Trilogy
Imprint	Penguin Books
ISBN-13	09780399562464
ISBN-10	039956246X
Author	Jojo Moyes
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	FIC045000, FIC027000
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