Nicholas Charles Sparks is an American novelist,
screenwriter and producer. Eight of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted
to film.
Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved
storytellers. He has seventeen published novels plus one non-fiction. All of
his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 89 million copies in
print worldwide, in over 50 languages, including over 50 million copies in the
United States alone, and his popularity continues to soar.
Sparks wrote
one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age
28. It was published in 1996 by Warner Books. He followed with the novels
Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A
Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The
Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005),
Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song
(2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), and The Longest Ride (2013),
as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written
with his brother Micah.
Safe Haven,
filmed in Southport, North Carolina was released on February 14, 2013, and
marks Sparks’s eighth film adaptation, following The Lucky One, Message in a
Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The
Last Song, which thus far have a cumulative worldwide gross of nearly
three-quarters of a billion dollars.
Sparks lives in North Carolina with his family. He
contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major
contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre
Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.
Along with his wife, he founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North
Carolina. As a former full scholarship athlete (he still holds a track and
field record at the University of Notre Dame) he also spent four years coaching
track and field athletes at the local public high school. In 2009, the team he
coached at New Bern High School set a World Junior Indoor Record in the 4 x400
meter, in New York. The record still stands.
In 2011, Nicholas and his wife launched the Nicholas
Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and
international understanding through global education experiences for students
of all ages. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of Nicholas and
Catherine Sparks, more than $10 million dollars have been distributed to
deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. Because Nicholas and
Catherine Sparks cover all operational expenses of the foundation, 100% of
donations are devoted to programs.
On April 19-22, 2012, he launched the inaugural Nicholas
Sparks Celebrity Family Weekend and Golf Tournament in New Bern, North
Carolina, a weekend devoted to raising awareness and funds for the Foundation.
Sparks and his family hosted stars from the worlds of sports, music, movies and
television, along with fans, for a full calendar of events, raising over
$500,000.
Filming on "The Longest Ride" has begun and fans of "The Choice" will soon be able to see it on
the big screen! Deadline.com just broke the news that Lionsgate has acquired
the North American and UK distribution rights for a film adaptation of the
bestselling book.
The
Choice tells the story of a long love affair that begins
when Travis Parker and Gabby Holland first met as neighbors in a small coastal
town and end up pursuing a relationship that neither could have foreseen. It
spans a decade and traces the evolution of a love affair that is ultimately
tested by life’s most defining events.
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a
good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina.
In full pursuit of the good life—boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with
his good-natured buddies—he holds the vague conviction that a serious
relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby
Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the
appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him…and the
presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn’t help. Despite himself, Travis can’t
stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent
efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have
foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, The
Choice ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all:
how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?
Nicholas Sparks
Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was
possible. She’d believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen.”
In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda
Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from
opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the
realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the
summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the
young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.
Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are
summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who
once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they
imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever
changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left
behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew—about
Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear—was not as it
seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will
discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course
of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can
love truly rewrite the past?
The Longest Ride
Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks
In the tradition of his beloved first novel, The
Notebook, #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with the
remarkable story of two couples whose parallel love stories intersect in
profound and surprising ways.
Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years old, in poor health and
alone in the world, he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a
car crash. Suffering multiple injuries,
he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes and
comes into focus beside him: his beloved
wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago.
Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the
stories of their lifetime together – how they met, the precious paintings they
collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their
families. Ira knows that Ruth can’t
possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories,
reliving the sorrows and everyday joys that defined their marriage.
A few miles away, at a local bull-riding event, a
Wake Forest College senior’s life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break-up, Sophia
Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke, who bears little resemblance to the
privileged frat boys she has encountered at school. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world
in which the stakes of survival and success, ruin and reward -- even life and
death – loom large in everyday life. As
she and Luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed
from her plans -- a future that Luke has
the power to rewrite . . . if the secret he’s keeping doesn’t destroy it first.
Ira and Ruth.
Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common, and who are
separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with
unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions
can yield extraordinary journeys: beyond despair, beyond death, to the farthest
reaches of the human heart.
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