The John Green Collection (101 page)

I learned about paper towns by coming across one during a road trip my junior year of college. My traveling companion and I kept driving up and down the same desolate stretch of highway in South Dakota, searching for this town the map promised existed—as I recall, the town was called Holen. Finally, we pulled into a driveway and knocked on a door. The friendly woman who answered had been asked the question before. She explained that the town we were seeking existed only on the map.

The story of Agloe, New York—as outlined in this book—is mostly true. Agloe began as a paper town created to protect against copyright infringement. But then people with those old Esso maps kept looking for it, and so someone built a store, making Agloe real. The business of cartography has changed a lot since Otto G. Lindberg and Ernest Alpers invented Agloe. But many mapmakers still include paper towns as copyright traps, as my bewildering experience in South Dakota attests.

The store that was Agloe no longer stands. But I believe that if we were to put it back on our maps, someone would eventually rebuild it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank:

 
—My parents, Sydney and Mike Green. I never thought I would say this, but: thank you for raising me in Florida.

—My brother and favorite collaborator, Hank Green.

—My mentor, Ilene Cooper.

—Everyone at Dutton, but particularly my incomparable editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, Lisa Yoskowitz, Sarah Shumway, Stephanie Owens Lurie, Christian Fünfhausen, Rosanne Lauer, Irene Vandervoort, and Steve Meltzer.

—My delightfully tenacious agent, Jodi Reamer.

—The Nerdfighters, who have taught me so much about the meaning of awesome.

—My writing partners Emily Jenkins, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, and Maureen Johnson.

—Two particularly helpful books I read about disappearance while researching
Paper Towns
: William Dear’s
The Dungeon Master
and Jon Krakauer’s
Into the Wild
. I am also grateful to Cecil Adams, the big brain behind “The Straight Dope,” whose short article on copyright traps is—so far as I know—the definitive resource on the subject.

—My grandparents: Henry and Billie Grace Goodrich, and William and Jo Green.

—Emily Johnson, whose readings of this book were invaluable; Joellen Hosler, the best therapist a writer could ask for; cousins-in-law Blake and Phyllis Johnson; Brian Lipson and Lis Rowinski at Endeavor; Katie Else; Emily Blejwas, who joined me on that trip to the paper town; Levin O’Connor, who taught me most of what I know about funny; Tobin Anderson and Sean, who took me urban exploring in Detroit; school librarian Susan Hunt and all those who risk their jobs to stand against censorship; Shannon James; Markus Zusak; John Mauldin and my wonderful parents-in-law, Connie and Marshall Urist.

—Sarah Urist Green, my first reader and first editor and best friend and favorite teammate.

PRAISE FOR
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

“Acerbic comedy, sexy romance, and a lightly played, extended meditation on the big questions about life and death.”

—
Horn Book
, starred review

“An achingly beautiful story about life and loss.”

—
School Library Journal
, starred review

“A smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance…. Readers will swoon on nearly every page. Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire.”

—
Kirkus
, starred review

“This is [Green’s] best work yet.”

—
Publishers Weekly
, starred review

“A bittersweet story of life, death and love in between.”

—
Deseret News

“Green proves through his characters that lasting love requires the risk of losing it. This is not a morbid book. Hazel and Gus invite us to laugh and live life to the fullest for as long as we can.”

—
Shelf Awareness

“Hilarious, joyous, outrageous and utterly sad.”

—Scripps Howard News Service

“John Green is one of the best writers alive.”

—
E. Lockhart, National Book Award Finalist and
Printz Honor–winning author of
The Disreputable History of
Frankie Landau-Banks
and
The Boyfriend List

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

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Designed by Irene Vandervoort

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-101-56918-4