The Wish

From the author of The Longest Ride and The Return comes a novel about the enduring legacy of first love and the decisions that haunt us forever.

The year 1996 changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at sixteen to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina's Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind--until she met Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island.

Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce showed her how much there was to love about the wind-swept beach town and introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life.

In 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier--and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.

With over ninety-five million copies of his books sold, Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved storytellers. His novels include twelve #1 New York Times bestsellers, and all his books, including Three Weeks with My Brother, the memoir he wrote with his brother, Micah, have been New 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 in Rodanthe, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle--were also adapted into major motion pictures. In 2011, he founded the Nicholas Sparks Foundation to inspire and transform students' lives though 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.

Will Collyer, an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a film, television, and stage actor. He has starred in television shows such as Melrose Place, Charmed, CSI: Miami, and Boston Public, as well as numerous films and plays. He holds a BA in theater arts from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.