READERS GUIDE

AN INTRODUCTION TO AFTER YOU
 
In After You, Jojo Moyes’s sequel to her #1 bestselling novel Me Before You, we meet Louisa Clark two years after her life with Will Traynor ended. Since her six-month stint caring for quadriplegic Will, Lou has been struggling to truly accept his death. She’s working in an airport bar that requires a humiliating costume, living on her own in a London flat, and drinking copiously to drown her sorrows. Despite all that Will taught her, Lou can’t quite figure out where to go next.
 
During one lonely night looking out over London from her rooftop, she falls—a major accident that sends her to the hospital with broken bones and a deep sense of shame. Upon her release, she moves in with her parents, who are increasingly concerned about her state of mind. When she’s well enough, they allow her to go home to her flat—with the caveat that she must start attending a weekly support group.
 
Lou reluctantly agrees to try out the Moving On Circle, where she slowly learns to open up—about her grief and to other people. And there she meets Sam, a handsome paramedic, who may be the one man who can truly understand her devastation. Then Lily, a figure from Will’s past, shows up at Lou’s door. Soon she will become a dominant presence in Lou’s life, commandeering her plans for the future. Lou finds herself drawn to the troubled Lily and, over time, warms up to her unpredictable but often winning ways. These new relationships start to give Lou’s once-floundering life a renewed sense of purpose. But when Lou’s friend Nathan offers her a potential job opportunity in New York City, with the chance to start over and launch a real career, Lou must decide what kind of life she truly wants to lead. . . .
 
Lou is as lovable and relatable as ever, and the rambunctious Clark family is brought vividly and hilariously to life. Emotionally charged and devastatingly romantic, After You explores the ways we can rebuild ourselves after unthinkable loss. Jojo Moyes once again dazzles with her trademark storytelling, humor, and insight into the way we heal and move on.
 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH JOJO MOYES
 
You’ve said that you didn’t plan to write a sequel to Me Before You. What was it that inspired you to return to these characters in After You?
 
Since the publication of Me Before You, I have received the most astonishing amount of email from readers, all of whom cared deeply about Will and Lou, and many of whom wanted to know what she did next, and answering these meant that these characters never left me in the way they had with other books. When I was asked to write the film adaptation of the book, I was once again thrust into Lou’s world—and gradually found myself asking the same question. I was wary of recycling Lou’s life for the sake of it—but then I had a eureka moment, where I woke up one morning at 5:30 a.m., sat bolt upright, and wondered: “But what if that happened . . . ?” And from that point, I knew where I wanted her to go.
 
After You begins with Louisa suffering a dramatic fall. Why did you choose to begin the book with this event?
 
I often start a story with an image—long before I have worked out the full idea for the book. In this case it was Lou walking unsteadily along the parapet of a high building, arms outstretched, with the city buzzing below. Once I worked out why she was up there, the scene pretty much wrote itself. And I’m trying to make my books a little quicker to get going at the start—you can’t get much faster than someone falling from a building!
 
The character of Lily is wonderfully drawn—a believable teenager who is at once wise and infuriating, and who turns out to have a major conflict of her own. How did Lily’s story grow or change through drafts of the novel?
 
Thank you. Lily was actually the most constant character in the book. While other characters underwent several metamorphoses, Lily burst into my imagination fully formed, just as Will had done. After struggling a little with Lou’s grief in the opening chapters of the book, it was actually enjoyable to have Lily’s energy take over the page—crackling and unpredictable and dark and funny. I wanted the readers to assume they knew just who she was—the typical moody teenager—but then realize, as with most characters, there is more to her behavior than meets the eye.
 
In many ways it’s Lily who helps Lou grow up. What can people of different generations teach us about ourselves?
 
I really wanted to write a book with a teenager in it, as I have two of my own, and the great revelation to me has been how funny and entertaining and generally nice they are—as long as you listen to them. They get such bad press, and we all assume we know what’s going on with them, but really they have such a complex world to negotiate—much more so than mine was (and which felt complex enough at the time!). I’ve learned a lot from having my own teenagers—and do every day. I hope by the end of the book readers have a lot of sympathy for her.
 
What are some of the challenges in writing a sequel to a love story? How did you go about pairing up Lou with another potential partner?
 
Well, I couldn’t imagine who was going to fill Will’s shoes, and I tried to write Sam for about six months, repeatedly stripping him out and rebuilding him, before he became Sam as he is now. I knew that he could be nothing like Will—not physically and certainly not mentally. He had to be solid enough not to be threatened by Will’s memory, but complex enough to provide his own challenge. He too came from a single image—standing in his half-built house, surrounded by his allotment and his hens. I think the thing I really loved about Sam was how sexy he became. Will’s relationship with Lou was, by necessity, so much in their heads and hearts. With Sam, Lou uncovers another facet of her personality completely.
 
Sam brings a whole new level of swoon to the paramedic profession. What is most important to you in creating an appealing love interest?
 
I think it’s believability. The difficulty when writing a love story, especially if you are frequently told that what you are writing is “romance,” is to create someone who is not a trope—not that tall, dark, handsome prince who is going to sweep you off your feet and make everything okay. Sam is less a rescuer than a facilitator—he is comfortable enough in his own skin to let Lou be what she needs to be. I think that is incredibly attractive. What I found with Sam is that the more I pared him down, the better he worked; unlike Will, the less he said, the more attractive he became. He probably now has half the dialogue that he did in my early drafts. He’s a doer, not a talker. But I was absolutely in love with him by the time I had finished—and that is a litmus test for writing a love interest.
 
As Lou becomes more responsible for Lily, her own mother starts to break away from her responsibilities as she reads feminist literature. How do these two story arcs inform one another?
 
At base level, it’s about the expectations of women—how far we put aside our own lives and ambitions to care for others—and the potential cost when we simply choose not to. Lily is a girl lost in the slipstream of a mother who thinks only of herself; while Josie, Lou’s mother, is spurred to try to work out who she is after a lifetime of never putting herself first. Lou vacillates between these two positions, and finally finds a place in which she can feel fulfilled. But I also thought it was really important for the supporting characters to have their own arcs—I didn’t think either the Traynors or the Clarks would be untouched by what had happened—and the book is really about how everyone has been affected by one man’s decision.
 
Without spoiling the ending for readers, can you talk about how you arrived at the decision to leave the story somewhat open?
 
It was a character thing. I wasn’t entirely sure what would happen until quite near the ending, at which point I realized that, as with Me Before You, I had to set aside what might give me private satisfaction and go with what I think the character would do. It was a fine balance. I hope I got it right.
 
You have an enthusiastic fan base eagerly awaiting this sequel. What do you think it is that readers respond to or identify with most in your work?
 
I’m never sure, as each book has its own strange alchemy and you are never sure what’s going to work until it’s done. But my main concern when I write is character—someone who might stay with you long after you’ve finished reading—and I think it’s Lou’s character that readers respond to: her lack of malice, her quirkiness, her sweet nature, her stubbornness when it’s needed, and her ability to trip herself up time and time again. I think, from the messages I’m sent, that a lot of women see themselves in her (and a lot of men fall in love with her). I also think it’s the fact that readers laugh and cry while reading. As a reader, I love to be made to feel something—it’s more important to me than a beautifully honed paragraph—and I hope this one makes readers feel something too.
 
Now that you’ve returned to this story, are you ready to move on from Lou, or might there be one more book for her in the future?
 
I have a very vague idea for a third, but it’s really going to depend on whether readers want to see her again, and whether I can form this into a final chapter that works. I don’t think I’d write an endless series of Lou books, but I can certainly see a trilogy. I’m very fond of her, and of the whole family. It’s actually a pleasure to revisit them.
 
 
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
 
1. What is Louisa’s emotional state at the start of this book? What has transpired for her between Will’s death and now?
 
2. Lou’s gig at the Shamrock and Clover is a great source of humor in the book. What other function does this particular job play in the book and how does it serve the story?
 
3. Lou worries that after her accident everyone thinks she’s suicidal. How would you describe her mental state and her role in the fall? Is she responsible, and why or why not?
 
4. Throughout the book, Lou and her loved ones question her life decisions and whether she is in fact “living” at all after Will’s death. What is holding her back, and what ultimately allows her to make changes?
 
5. Lou finds herself attracted to Sam, but she isn’t always straightforward with him about her feelings. What keeps her from being intimate with him?
 
6. How are the Traynors dealing with their grief in different ways?
 
7. How does the Moving On Circle help Lou? What insights does she take away from her experience?
 
8. In Chapter 19, the point of view changes to Lily’s perspective. Why does the author make this shift and how does it serve the overall plot of the book?
 
9. A running theme in the novel is about personal freedom and how Lou, Treena, and their mother all feel trapped by their respective situations. How do they learn from one another? How might they each benefit from having more freedom?
 
10. What does Lou learn from her relationship with Sam, and how might these lessons serve her in her new life?