A Walk to Remember

There was a time when the world was sweeter . . . when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats. . . when something happened to a seventeen year-old boy that would change his life forever.

Every April, when the wind blows in from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High.

It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister.

A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out.

Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood . . .

No other author today touches our emotions more deeply than Nicholas Sparks. Illuminating both the strength and the gossamer fragility of our deepest emotions, his two New York Times bestsellers, The Notebook and Message in a Bottle, have established him as the leading author of today's most cherished love stories. Now, in A WALK TO REMEMBER, he tells a truly unforgettable story, one that glimmers with all of his magic, holding us spell-bound -- and reminding us that in life each of us may find one great love, the kind that changes everything . . .

When I was seventeen, my life changed forever.... So begins Nicholas Sparks touching tale of Landon Carter, a teenage boy living in the small town of Beaufort, North Carolina, in the late 1950s. Landon is a typical teenager who just wants to have a fun senior year before heading off to college. The last thing he anticipated is Jamie Sullivan, the sweet, pious daughter of the towns Baptist minister. But on the evening of Beauforts annual Christmas pageant, Landon will undergo a change of heart that will forever alter the course of his life. In the months that follow, Landon discovers truths that it takes most people a lifetime to learntruths about the nature of beauty, the joy of giving, the pain of loss, and, most of all, the transformational power of love. Nicholas Sparks most recent novel, Message in a Bottle (Warner, 4/98), has nearly 700,000 hardcover copies in print and was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for 29 weeks and counting. The Warner paperback edition has reached #1 on the USA Today bestseller list, #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and has 1.5 million copies in print. It is a major motion picture starring Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, and Paul Newman. A Main Selection of Doubleday Direct and The Literary Guild. Also available as a Time Warner AudioBook. Praise for Message in a Bottle: Engaging until the very end. ˜ The Edmonton Journal A heart-wrenching story with a powerful ending. ˜ The Lethbridge Herald

In the prologue to his latest novel, Nicholas Sparks makes the rather presumptuous pledge "first you will smile, and then you will cry," but sure enough, he delivers the goods. With his calculated ability to throw your heart around like a yo-yo (try out his earlier Message in the Bottle or The Notebook if you really want to stick it to yourself), Sparks pulls us back to the perfect innocence of a first love.

In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes in town: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.

Like John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, Sparks maintains a delicate and rarely seen balance of humor and sentiment. While the plot may not be the most original, this boy-makes-good tearjerker will certainly reel in the fans. Look for a movie starring beautiful people or, better yet, snuggle under the covers with your tissues nearby and let your inner sap run wild. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien