The Best of Me

"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?

With over 95 million copies of his books sold, Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved storytellers. His novels include twelve #1New York Times bestsellers, and all his books, including Three Weeks with My Brother, the memoir he wrote with his brother, Micah, have beenNew York Times and international bestsellers, and were translated into more than fifty languages. Nine of Nicholas Sparks's novels-The Best of Me, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, The Last Song, Dear John, Nights inRodanthe, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle-were also adapted into major motion pictures withThe Longest Ride coming in Spring 2015. In 2011, he established the Nicholas Sparks Foundation to inspire and transform students' lives through education, curriculum development, and life-changing international experiences. To learn more, go to www.NicholasSparksFoundation.org. The author lives in North Carolina with his wife and family. You can visit him at www.NicholasSparks.com.