If I Could Tell You

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First published in Great Britain by Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, 2016

Published in Penguin Books (UK) 2016

Published in Penguin Books (USA) 2017

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‘If I Could Tell You’ by W. H. Auden, copyright © W. H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd; ‘The Thingummy Bob’: Words and Music by Barbara Gordon, Basil Thomas, and David Heneker, copyright © 1941. Reproduced by permission of Francis Day & Hunter Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd, London W1F 9LD

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Wilhide, Elizabeth, author.

Title: If I could tell you : a novel / Elizabeth Wilhide.

Description: New York, New York : Penguin Books, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016051706 (print) | LCCN 2016058700 (ebook) | ISBN 9780143130437 (softcover) | ISBN 9781524704070 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PS3623.I5444 I35 2017 (print) | LCC PS3623.I5444 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016051706

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design: Roseanne Serra

Cover images: (background) akg-images; (woman) Richard Jenkins; (fighter planes) Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-342-0603-25 / Karl Ketelhorn / Licence CC-BY-SA 3.0