The Girl on Paper Read Online Free PDF

tables. I could tell that it was heated, with recriminations and references to problems that I knew nothing about.
    ‘That was Doubleday,’ explained Milo as he sat back down. ‘They were calling about one of the things I want to discuss with you. It’s nothing to worry about: just a problem with the printing of the special edition of your last book.’
    That edition was very important to me, and I had wanted every last detail to be perfect. It was to be bound in imitation leather, with watercolour illustrations showing the main characters, and a previously unpublished preface and postscript.
    ‘What sort of problem?’
    ‘To satisfy the huge public demand, they tried to rush the printing. They put the printer under enormous pressure and someone somewhere screwed up, which means they now have 100,000 faulty copies on their hands. They’re going to pulp them, but the annoying thing is that some of the copies have already been delivered to bookstores. They’re going to email all the stores and get them back.’
    He pulled a copy out of his bag and handed it to me. Even in my distracted state I spotted the problem straight away when I flicked through the copy. Only half of the 500 pages that made up the book had been printed. The story stopped abruptly on page 266, midway through a sentence:

    Billie wiped her eyes, which were blackened where her mascara had run.
    ‘Please, Jack, don’t leave like this.’
    But the man had already put on his coat. He opened the door, without so much as a backward glance at his mistress.
    ‘I’m begging you!’ she cried, falling
    And that was all there was. Not even a full stop. The book finished at ‘falling’, which was followed by 200 blank pages.
    Because I knew all my novels by heart, I had no trouble remembering what was supposed to come next: ‘“I’m begging you!” she cried, falling to her knees.’
    ‘Well, no point worrying about that too much,’ Milo cut in, picking up his fork. ‘It’s up to them to sort out the mess. The most important thing, Tom, is—’
    I knew what he was going to say before he even finished his sentence.
    ‘The most important thing now, Tom, is your next book.’
    My next book .
    He swallowed a large mouthful of pasta then started tapping keys on the computer.
    ‘The hype is unbelievable. Just take a look at this!’
    Milo had gone to Amazon’s homepage. From advance orders alone, my ‘next book’ was already number one, just above the fourth Millennium book, which was in second place.
    ‘What do you think of that then?’
    I sidestepped the question. ‘I thought Stieg Larsson was dead, and that they were never going to publish the fourth book.’
    ‘I’m talking about your book, Tom.’
    I turned my attention back to the screen, amazed by the fact that they were selling something that didn’t even exist yet, that would probably never exist. My next novel was dueto be published on 10 December, just three months away. So far I had yet to write a single line and had only the vaguest idea of a plot in my head.
    ‘Look, Milo—’
    But my friend didn’t seem to want to let me speak.
    ‘This time, I promise I’ll get you a launch that will make Dan Brown jealous. You’d have to be living on another planet to miss this book coming out.’
    Milo was getting so carried away that it was difficult to stop him:
    ‘I’ve already started to hype the book, and there’s plenty of buzz on Facebook and Twitter, and a lot of discussion on book blogs between your supporters and your detractors—’
    ‘Milo—’
    ‘For the US and UK alone, Doubleday has ordered an initial print run of 4 million copies. The big names are expecting a great first week. We’ll have bookstores opening at midnight, like they did for Harry Potter !’
    ‘Milo—’
    ‘And you will have to put yourself in the spotlight a little more. I can get you an exclusive interview with NBC—’
    ‘Milo!’
    ‘Everyone’s really going crazy for you, Tom! No one wants