The journey that a book takes.

I grew up near an airport, and each time I went there - at first with my mother to drop off a relative who was travelling somewhere far across the world, then later by myself - I would look up at the Departures board at the names of all the towns and cities, and I would think: in each one of these places, a great new friendship might await. It is still my favourite thing to do whenever I go to an airport: to look at that board and to imagine endless possibilities for beautiful futures.

Each time a book is published, it takes its unique journey out into the world. When I wrote “In The End, It Was All About Love”, my dream was that it would be the kind of book that someone found lying around on a bed in a youth hostel and stuffed into their backpack, maybe abandoning it in turn on a seat in a high-speed train. Or, failing that, that someone would pick it up, read it, and pass it on. 

Recently, I found out that this dream had come true, because several people who have read this book have passed it on. I asked people on Instagram to tell me some of the towns and cities that they were living in or travelling through when they read “In The End, It Was All About Love” (now beautifully translated into German by Marie-Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig). Some of them have sent me some lovely messages about what they were going through when they read it, some of which I would like to share one day if I have their permission. They also told me that the book had been to or through (takes deep breath) -

"Aachen, Aarhus, Abu Dhabi, Accra, Almería, Amsterdam, Ann Arbor, Annapolis, Atlanta, Auckland, Baltimore, Bamberg, Barcelona, Basel, Bath, Belfast, Belo Horizonte, Berlin, Birkenau, Birmingham, Bishkek, Blumenau, Bochum, Bogota, Boston, Boulder, Bratislava, Brighton, Bristol, Brussels, Bucharest, Buffalo, Cairo, Calgary, Cambridge, Canberra, Cape Town, Carcavelos, Cardiff, Charlottesville, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colchester, Cologne, Columbus, Copenhagen, Cork, Croydon, Dallas, Dorgali, Dublin, Düsseldorf, East Cowes, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Eindhoven, Exeter, Frankfurt, Ithaca, Galway, Gelsenkirchen, Girona, Glasgow, Gloucester, Göttingen, Graz, Groningen, Hamburg, Hanover, Harare, Hastings, Hayfield, Helsingborg, Helsinki, Henley, Heysham, Hoboken, Hong Kong, Horsham, Huddersfield, Hull, Indianapolis, Insel Rügen, Kampala, Kassel, Kathmandu, Kelowna, Kiel, Kilkenny, King’s Lynn, Kraków, Kuala Lumpur, Leeds, Leipzig, Liguria, Lisbon, Little Rock, Liverpool, Llubjana, London, Los Angeles, Lugano, Lüneburg, Luton, Maastricht, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Mannheim, Margate, Marseille, Melbourne, Mercersburg, Milton Keynes, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Mission Viejo, Montpellier, Montreal, Morgantown, Munich, New Delhi, New York, Noto, Nottingham, Norwich, Nuremburg, Oakland, Oakville, Obersdorf, Osaka, Oslo, Ottawa, Oxford, Palm Beach Gardens, Paisley, Paris, Perugia, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pindamonhangaba, Port de Pollença, Portarlington, Porto, Plymouth, Puglia, Raleigh, Ramsbottom, Reading, Redwood City, Rome, Rochester, St. Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Sevilla, Sheffield, Singapore, Sliema, Slough, Solihull, Southampton, Stromness, St-Senier-de-Beuvron, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tallinn, The Hague, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Trier, Tübingen, Vancouver, Vienna, Washington DC, Wellington, Weert, Whitley Bay, Wigan, Wismar, Wilmington, Wintergreen, York, and Zürich."

This book is a dream that continues to come true. Each time I hear of a new place that my book has been read, I will add it to the sentence above. Thank you very much for reading it, and for passing it on.