The Boy Made of Snow

by Chloe Mayer

  My sisters Justine Mayer and Kristiana Meseg are wonderful, strong women I’m proud to be related to, and special thanks to my sister Nola Mayer, who moved me more than she’ll ever know with her enthusiastic – and occasionally weepy – support.

  And a huge thank you to my other fabulous sisters – who I also count as friends – Peony Mayer and Gillian Males, who both read an early draft and helped me immeasurably with it, as did Robin de Peyer, who cheered me on at every step, never doubted me, and who picked me up and swung me around in the middle of Oxford Street when I told him I’d be published.

  Thanks also to my dog Bambi, who can’t read these words but deserves them anyway, for faithfully sitting on my lap and keeping me company while I wrote, and in whose honour I named my village. My sister Peony demanded I name the town after her dog, Denzil; she says I have to thank him too.

  Finally, I would like to thank my parents – Tom and Teresa Mayer – for their boundless support; not just with this novel, but throughout my life. I’ve been so lucky. The only similarity between my amazing, warm and loving mum with the mother in this book is that she shared her love of stories with me and ignited my lifelong passion for reading and writing. Thank you for your help with that early draft and for being someone to aspire to, and for always being – so fiercely! – in my corner. And thank you to my lovely dad, who has been supportive in every way a parent can be supportive – but who also insisted he wouldn’t read a single page of this story until it was published and in the shops. I laughed long and loud at that, and told him the chances of that happening were mind-bogglingly slim to zero, but he stood firm. I’d like to thank him for believing in me. I hate it when he’s right, but … Here you go then! You can read it now.

  Chloë Mayer

  London, June 2017

  About the Author

  Chloë Mayer is a journalist whose work has been shortlisted for several awards, including newcomer of the year and reporter of the year. She has lived and worked in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and now lives in east London, not far from where she grew up. The Boy Made of Snow is her first novel.

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  Copyright

  A Weidenfeld & Nicolson ebook

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

  This ebook edition published in 2017 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

  Copyright © Chloë Mayer 2017

  The right of Chloë Mayer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Excerpts from THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES AND STORIES by Hans Christian Andersen, copyright © 1974 by Eric Christian Haugaard. Used by permission of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  978 1 4746 0482 6

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK Company

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