The Giver of Stars

  She would still be thinking about it—and still trying not to smile—when they all arrived back at the library the following day.

  POSTSCRIPT

  The WPA’s Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky program ran from 1935 to 1943. At its height it brought books to more than a hundred thousand rural inhabitants. No program like it has ever been set up since.

  Eastern Kentucky remains one of the poorest—and most beautiful—places in the United States.

  Acknowledgments

  This book, more than anything I’ve ever written, was a labor of love. I fell in love with a place and its people, and then the story as it came, and that made writing an unusual joy. To that end I want to thank Barbara Napier and everyone at Snug Hollow in Irvine, Kentucky, especially Olivia Knuckles, without whose voices I wouldn’t have found those of my heroines. Your spirit and that of the holler runs through this book and I am so happy to call you friends.

  Thank you to everyone at Whisper Valley Trails in the Cumberland Mountains, who enabled me to ride the kind of routes that the women would have done, and to everyone I stopped and quizzed and harangued and chatted to during my travels.

  Closer to home, I’d like to thank my editors Louise Moore and Maxine Hitchcock of Penguin Michael Joseph in the UK, Pam Dorman of Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin Random House in the US, and Katharina Dornhoefer of Rowohlt in Germany, none of whom flinched when I told them that my next book would be about a group of horseback librarians in rural America during the Depression. Even though I suspect they might have wanted to. Thank you all also for continuing to help me better my books—all stories are a collaborative endeavor—and for your continuing faith in them and in me. Thanks to Clare Parker and Louise Braverman, Liz Smith, Claire Bush, Kate Stark and Lydia Hirt and all the teams at each publishing house for your awesome skills in helping me get these stories in front of people. On a wider scale, thanks to Tom Weldon and Brian Tart and in Germany to Anoukh Foerg.

  Thanks as ever to Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown for being cheerleader, sales guru, fierce negotiator and emotional support in one. And to Claire Nozieres, Katie McGowan and Enrichetta Frezzato for keeping it global on a fairly spectacular scale. Thank you also to Bob Bookman of Bob Bookman Management, Jonny Geller and Nick Marston for the task of keeping this machine running across all sorts of media. You all rock.

  A big thanks to Alison Owen of Monumental Pictures for “seeing” this story when it was just an elevator pitch, and for your ongoing enthusiasm, and to Ol Parker for the same, and for helping me shape key scenes and making it fun. I can’t wait to see what you do with it.

  Heartfelt thanks to Cathy Runciman for driving duties across Kentucky and Tennessee and making me laugh so much we nearly ran off the road more than once. Our friendship is embedded in these pages too.

  Thanks also to Maddy Wickham, Damian Barr, Alex Heminsley, Monica Lewinsky, Thea Sharrock, Sarah Phelps and Caitlin Moran. You all know what for.

  Gratitude as ever to Jackie Tearne, Claire Roweth and Leon Kirk for all the logistical and practical backup without which I couldn’t get through each week, let alone life. It is so very much appreciated.

  I’m indebted to the Kentucky Tourist Board for its advice, and thank you to everyone who helped me in Lee and Estill Counties. And Green Park, for being an unlikely source of inspiration.

  And last but very much not least thanks as ever to my family: to Jim Moyes, Lizzie Sanders and Brian Sanders. And most of all to Charles, Saskia, Harry and Lockie.

  About the Author

  Jojo Moyes is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Still Me, After You, Me Before You, The Peacock Emporium, The Horse Dancer, Paris for One and Other Stories, One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, The Last Letter from Your Lover, Silver Bay, and The Ship of Brides.

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