Read the first chapter of Still Me, the new novel from Jojo Moyes
More about the book!
Penguin Random House has shared the first chapter of Still Me now, ahead of the book’s release in January 2018.
Click on the link above for more about the book!
Following Me Before You and After You, the third Lou Clark novel by Jojo Moyes sees Lou landing in America for a fresh start:
1.
It was the moustache that reminded me I was no longer in England: a solid, grey millipede firmly obscuring the man’s upper lip; a Village People moustache, a cowboy moustache, the miniature head of a broom that meant business. You just didn’t get that kind of moustache at home. I couldn’t tear my eyes from it.
‘Ma’am?’
The only person I had ever seen with a moustache 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 shirt. 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 realised 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 Perspex 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.
Categories Fiction International
Tags Book extracts Jojo Moyes New books New releases Penguin Random House SA Still Me
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