Thirty Girls. Susan Minot

      Thirty Girls

      Susan Minot

       Copyright

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London, SE1 9GF

       www.4thestate.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2014

      First published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada

       Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House Companies

      A portion of this work originally appeared in different form

      in Granta (winter 2012)

      Copyright © 2014 by Susan Minot

      Design by Kate Gaughran. Cover photographs © Claudia Dewald/Getty Images

      Susan Minot asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

      Source ISBN: 9780007550722

      Ebook Edition © February 2014 ISBN: 9780007568901

      Version: 2015-01-30

       To beloved daughters Ava Cecily Hannah

       and the brave daughters of Uganda

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

       Dedication

I: THEY TOOK ALL OF US

1. Thirty Girls

II: LAUNCH

2. Landing

3. Esther

4. Taking Off

       III: FIRST DAYS

       5. The You File

       6. Recreational Visits

       7. Independence Day

       IV: TO THE NORTH

       8. On Location

       9. In the Bush

       V: IT IS POSSIBLE

       10. At St. Mary’s

       11. Was God in Sudan?

       VI: REFUGE

       12. Hospitality in Lacor

       13. The You File

       14. What Comes Back to Me

       VII: GULU

       15. Love with Harry

       16. Stone Trees

       VIII: AIR POCKET

       17. The You File

       18. Dusty Ground

       IX: SPIRAL

       19. Where I Went

       20. Don’t Go

       X: FLIGHT

       21. Perhaps It Is Better Not to Know Some Things

       22. Where I Didn’t Go

       23. The You File

       Notes and Acknowledgments

       About the Author

       Also by Susan Minot

       About the Publisher