After You

After You (2015) is a contemporary romance novel by British novelist Jojo Moyes. Originally published in the United Kingdom by Michael Joseph and by Pamela Dorman Books in the United States, the novel is the second installment in Moyes’s Me Before You trilogy. It is preceded by Me Before You (2012) and followed by Still Me (2018). In After You, Louisa Clark is left reeling after her former employer and lover, Will Traynor, dies by assisted suicide. Unsure how to live without Will, she struggles to make friends, pursue her passions, and heal from her loss. The novel is written from Louisa’s first-person point of view and explores themes including The Complicated Process of Grieving and Healing, The Complexity of Human Relationships After Loss, and The Impact of Unexpected Life Changes. Moyes has risen to international acclaim as a contemporary romance novelist. She has published over a dozen romance titles, some of which have been translated into other languages and adapted into feature-length films. Moyes’s titles have also repeatedly appeared on The New York Times Bestseller list.

This study guide refers to the 2016 Penguin Random House paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of cursing, sexual content, death, death by medically assisted suicide, mental health conditions, sexual harassment and violence, substance use, and graphic violence.

Plot Summary

Eighteen months after Will Traynor’s death by assisted suicide, Louisa Clark is living in a London flat alone. She spent some time working and living in Paris after Will died but has since returned to England. Despite her proximity to her family and hometown, Louisa continues to feel lost, alone, and ungrounded. She is bartending at an airport bar, hasn’t spoken to her parents, Josie and Bernard, or her sister, Treena, in months, and can’t stop obsessing over Will’s fate.

One night, Louisa drinks a bottle of wine at home alone and climbs onto her roof. She walks the parapet as a dare to herself while yelling at Will for abandoning her. A voice sounds from the darkness behind her, warning her to be careful. Startled, Louisa falls.

A downstairs neighbor’s awning and balcony couch break Louisa’s fall, but a band of EMTs still takes her to the hospital for her injuries. Once there, she undergoes several operations. She’s shocked when she wakes up to find her parents at her bedside. They then take Louisa back to their Stortfold home to recover.

Louisa gradually regains her strength over the following weeks. Meanwhile, she repairs her relationships with her family. However, family life soon becomes too overwhelming, and Louisa decides to return to London. Her father agrees to let her go as long as she finds grief counseling.

Louisa starts attending the Moving On Circle. Initially, she feels uncomfortable hearing everyone else’s stories, unsure if her loss even counts. Soon, however, she feels comfortable being there. Outside afterward, Louisa is surprised to run into Sam Fielding, one of the EMTs who helped her on the night of the accident. They have a friendly conversation before parting ways.

Not long later, Louisa hears a knock on her door one night. She opens the door, shocked when the 16-year-old girl on her step announces that she’s Lily Miller, Will’s daughter. Lily explains that Will and her mom, Tanya, had a relationship during college, but Tanya never told Lily about him. She only just discovered the truth. Louisa lets Lily stay the night but drives her home in the morning. There, she hears Tanya’s story. Tanya insists that Will was terrible to her, so she never told him about Lily. Furious, Lily insists she’s leaving home because Tanya only cares about her new husband and children. Louisa lets her come back to her flat.

Louisa eventually takes Lily to meet Steven Traynor, Will’s dad. Steven is excited to learn about Lily but declines to let her stay with him because he and his new wife are having a baby. When Lily meets Will’s mom, Camilla, she acts similarly confused and upset. Frustrated, Lily storms out, convinced that no one loves or wants her.

Louisa lets Lily move in with her. They establish a routine over the following weeks and come to enjoy each other’s company. Meanwhile, Louisa reconnects with Sam, and the two start seeing each other. At grief group one night, Louisa admits to seeing someone new, and the relationship has helped her feel alive. However, when she hears that Jake (who she thinks is Sam’s son) has just met his dad’s new girlfriend and it’s not her, Louisa is hurt and upset. She confronts Sam for lying to her. They later clear up the miscommunication—Sam is Jake’s uncle—and start seeing each other again.

One day, Louisa returns home to find Lily smoking and drinking with friends in her flat. After the friends leave, Louisa discovers that her jewelry is missing. She confronts Lily for her insensitivity and irresponsibility and demands that she return home.

Louisa doesn’t hear from Lily for several days. She starts to feel bad about pushing Lily away and tries texting her, but Lily doesn’t respond. One night, Louisa gets the courage to climb back up to her roof. There, she discovers that Lily made a brand new garden. She tries Lily again, but Lily ignores her.

A few days later, Louisa and Sam get a bad feeling about Lily’s well-being and drive to Tanya’s house to see her. An unconcerned Tanya hasn’t seen her in over a week. Terrified, the two spend hours driving around town to find her. The search lasts several days. Finally, Sam runs into her sleeping at the hospital. Louisa brings her back to her house.

In the following weeks, Louisa helps Lily get back on her feet. (Lily ends up connecting and moving in with Camilla.) Meanwhile, Louisa tries to decide if she should accept a new caretaking position her friend told her about in New York City.

One night, Sam confronts her about their relationship, and Louisa argues that she can’t commit to Sam because of Will. The two don’t talk for several days, but Louisa grows uncomfortable with the silence between them. She joins Sam on a work call one night and explains herself while Sam drives to the scene of an accident. At the place of the accident, Sam gets shot twice. They race back to the hospital; on the way, Louisa begs him not to die.

Sam survives. Louisa realizes she wants to be with him. They profess their love and discuss the future. Sam encourages Louisa to take the New York job, and they agree to date long-distance. Louisa hosts a goodbye party with her friends and family on her roof. Shortly thereafter, Louisa boards her flight to New York. She says goodbye to her family and Sam, confident they’ll still love her even after she goes.