Since he released The Notebook in 1996, Nicholas Sparks has published nearly two dozen novels that have become bestsellers. In Counting Miracles, he once again delivers an uplifting, heartfelt story emblematic of his literary trademarks: a North Carolina setting, strong romantic elements, and a surprise, bittersweet ending.
The novel brings together three central characters, each battle-scarred and dislocated from life. Tanner Hughes is an army veteran and a hardworking drifter, who keeps "on the move," with assignments that take him all over the world. He has no family of his own--his single mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his grandparents. When his widowed grandmother is on her deathbed, she gives Tanner advice, "find where you belong," and she also furnishes the name of his birth father, Dave Johnson, absent from Tanner's life for 40 years and living in Asheboro, N.C.
This sets Tanner on a journey to the Carolinas, where he crosses paths with Kaitlyn Cooper, a 40-something, acrimoniously divorced, single mother of two, and a caring local doctor; a romance soon blooms. Her nine-year-old son, Mitch, has befriended one of her patients, a neighbor, Jasper--a reclusive, enigmatic elderly man deeply wounded by devastating life losses. Jasper has lived, for more than a decade, a quiet, unassuming life with his devoted dog, Arlo.
Jasper teaches Mitch how to whittle, and during one of their sessions, Mitch mentions rumors of a rare white deer that has been spotted in the nearby Uwharrie National Forest. There is a Celtic legend about how albino deer are "messengers from the otherworld." One day, as Jasper and Arlo take a hike, foraging for morel mushrooms, they come upon a dead deer that was illegally shot. This sighting unearths painful, heart-wrenching memories in Jasper. It also heightens his determination to save the white deer from poachers and delinquent local kids who hang out in the national park. Jasper's choices eventually lead to the unexpected union of the three characters, as they each experience a reawakening.
Sparks (Dreamland) is a deeply sensitive and compassionate writer who skillfully unravels a complex, multi-generational story. Readers will be swept up in another emotionally resonant, adventurous journey that maps the peaks and valleys of human existence and how love, in its many forms, can miraculously heal loss and loneliness, grief and grave uncertainty. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: Nicholas Sparks's compassionately drawn, multi-generational story brings together--and inspires hope in--three lost souls.