Contents (30)
- THE DANCE TREE
- Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Strasbourg, 1518
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- THE DANCE TREE
- Also by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Kiran Millwood Hargrave, November 2021
Acknowledgements
All novels contain a part of your heart: The Dance Tree has all the broken pieces of mine. Thank you to the people who supported me through this, the hardest of processes.
My editor, Sophie Jonathan, who helped me find the right words and the right path. My agent, Hellie Ogden, for telling me to take time to heal. To all at Picador, from proofreaders to typesetters, copyeditors to marketing teams, publicists to sales reps. To the wonderful people at Janklow and Nesbit, US and UK. To Kirby Kim, for his utter belief. To Rakesh Satyal and all at HarperOne.
To booksellers, librarians, and readers everywhere.
To Katie Ellis-Brown, for early guidance. To Elizabeth Macneal, for earlier guidance. To Sarvat Hasin and Daisy Johnson, for the earliest guidance.
To my family, my in-laws, my friends. Especially to my mother, Andrea, sisters-in-law Miranda, Madi, and Milli, and to Katie Webber. To my beloved cousins, nieces and nephews, to the babies born and growing while I wrote this story – miracles all.
To the people who help us live through disaster. To Dr Ingrid Granne, Ginny Mounce, Emily Carson, and Zoe Seargeant.
To the babies we lost. To all the people who know what that feels like.
To my husband, Tom. I love you.
THE DANCE TREE
KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE is an award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist. The Mercies was her first novel for adults, and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller. It won a Betty Trask Award, was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize and was named amongst the NYT 100 Most Notable Books of 2020. Her bestselling works for children include The Girl of Ink & Stars and Julia and the Shark (with Tom de Freston) and have won or been short- and long-listed for numerous awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Best Story Award and, twice, the CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Dance Tree is her second novel for adults.
Kiran lives in Oxford with her husband, the artist Tom de Freston, and their rescue cats, Luna and Marly.
Also by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Books for adults
The Mercies
Books for children
The Girl of Ink and Stars
The Island at the End of Everything
The Way Past Winter
The Deathless Girls
A Secret of Birds & Bone
Julia and the Shark
First published 2022 by Picador
This electronic edition first published 2022 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Ltd, 1st Floor,
The Liffey Trust Centre, 117–126 Sheriff Street Upper,
Dublin 1, D01 YC43
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www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-0517-2
Copyright © Kiran Millwood Hargrave 2022
Jacket design by Katie Tooke, Picador Art Department
Cover elements: Bridgeman Archive
Author photograph © Tom de Freston