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Message in a Bottle

nicholas sparks

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Shimmering with suspense and emotional intensity - takes readers on a hunt for the truth about a man and his memories, and about both the heartbreaking fragility and enormous strength of love.

Nicholas Sparks is our very best chronicler of the human heart. His stunning first novel, The Notebook, has been given by friend to friend and lover to lover all over the world as a testament to the timeless power of love. But if we thought he could never again move us so deeply, he now shows us he can-in a story that renews our faith in destiny...in the ability of true lovers to find each other no matter where, no matter when... Message In A Bottle

Thrown to the waves, and to fate, the bottle could have ended up anywhere. Instead, it is found just three weeks after it begins its journey. Theresa Osborne, divorced and the mother of a twelve-year-old son, picks it up during a seaside vacation from her job as a Boston newspaper columnist. Inside is a letter that opens with:

My Dearest Catherine, I miss you my darling, as I always do, but today is particularly hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together...

For "Garrett," the man who signs the letter, the message is the only way he knows to express his undying love for a woman he has lost. For Theresa, wary of romance since her husband shattered her trust, the message raises questions that intrigue her. Who are Garrett and Catherine? Where is he now? What is his story?

Challenged by the mystery, and pulled to find Garrett by emotions she does not fully understand, Theresa begins a search that takes her to a sunlit coastal town and an unexpected confrontation. Brought together by chance-or something more powerful-Theresa and Garrett are people whose lives are about to touch for a purpose, in a tale that resonates with our deepest hopes for finding that special someone and everlasting love.

Shimmering with suspense and emotional intensity, Message in a Bottle takes readers on a hunt for the truth about a man and his memories, and about both the heartbreaking fragility and enormous strength of love. For those who cherished The Notebook and readers waiting to discover the magic of Nicholas Sparks's storytelling, here is his new, achingly lovely novel of happenstance, desire, and the choices that matter most...

370 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1,1998
Places
wilmington north carolina, north carolina, 

This edition

Format
370 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
February 1, 1999 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN
9780446606813
ASIN
0446606812
Language
English
Characters More characters

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About the author

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nicholas sparks

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Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 130 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 92 million copies in the United States alone.

Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and 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), The Longest Ride (2013), See Me (2015), Two by Two (2016), Every Breath (2018), The Return (2020), The Wish (2021), and Dreamland (2022), as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written with his brother Micah. His twenty-fourth novel, Counting Miracles, will be published on September 24, 2024.

Film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, including The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven (on all of which he served as a producer), The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The Last Song, have had a cumulative worldwide gross of over three-quarters of a billion dollars. The Notebook has also been adapted into a Broadway musical, featuring music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson.

Sparks lives in North Carolina. 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. He co-founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina in 2006. 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 4×400 meters, as well as US High School National Records in the 800 Medley and 1600 Medley. Click to watch the Runner's World video with Nicholas.

The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 2011, to provide scholarships and fund educational programs for underprivileged and disadvantaged youth. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of the Sparks family, more than $15 million dollars have been distributed to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. Because the Sparks family covers all operational expenses of the foundation, 100% of donations are devoted to programs.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ava_core
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Is it better to have love & lost or better to never have loved at all …?

Not my favorite Sparks novel but I connected with the main character Theresa and felt everything she went through.

Pass the Kleenex please.
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Sanctuary_7
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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After finishing Message in a Bottle, I am completely speechless. I was unable to put the book down and so eager to continue to learn what will happen next. Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author and after reading this book, I'd say this is his most touching novel I've read so far. A woman, Theresa, is recovering from a divorce. One day, while she was on the beach, she finds something that'll change her life forever. She sees a bottle with something inside--it's a letter. She reads it and tears begin to fall because the person who wrote this letter really loved his significant other. This someone was Garrett. After many events, Theresa and Garrett meet and they develop something so beautiful. Theresa is falling for Garrett but she's still protecting herself from getting hurt because she knows Garrett isn't over his wife, Catherine, who died 3 years ago. Theresa had 3 letters Garrett wrote and he found them. They end up having a big argument and Garrett leaves. Theresa went down and they decided to end their relationship because things aren't working out. Sparks writes in 3rd person omniscient and readers can see that they both don't want to end like this. The ending is the best part and you'll have to read it to feel it. This novel has emphasized how important your significant other is, how it'll feel to loose them, but most importantly, to always keep and love them with all your heart. Nicholas Sparks was able to make me see another side of love. I'd recommend this book to everyone because it's a really great book. This book was powerful enough to make me tear up.
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TzKal-Zuk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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So cute and romantic. This book only reinforces my love for Nicholas Sparks! I cried like a total baby at the ending, like I typically do for most of his books. Couldn't get enough of this one. And definitely WAY better than the movie, the movie honestly sucked. Worth the read!
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flyingpardin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Just like many, if not most, the movie did NOT do justice to this book. Nicholas Sparks wrote a very detailed, vivid story of Theresa and how she found Garrett through clues in the letters that eventually were found offshore. The difference lies in that the characters described in the book were more human, they were much more flawed, but definitely real. The movie portraied Garrett as a victim of the circumstances that was lied to and that somehow did not have any say in what occurred. It also projected Theresa as someone that was easily thrown into searching for Garrett for the purpose of "knowing what kind of person would right romantic letters," which seems like a lame excuse. I mean, realistically speaking, how many people would go out of their way to seek, find and become intimate with, the author of a romantic letter?
One of the most interesting descriptions is that Theresa later finds herself in the same situation she found Garrett in when they first met, and did not understand.... a lesson embeded everyday life.
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UshiromiyaMemo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Written in a very simplistic way, one story line, nothing going on but the conversation or action currently on the page. I can see how it could easily be made into a movie as it is very low on content and high in maudlin emotion. Being a romance it has to have some silly language, in this case the overuse of the word "tightening". Take this line, "The breeze was blowing through her hair, and the sight of it made something tighten in his stomach." If that isn't enough to get you giggling, take these lines, "There was something mysterious and different about the way he acted, something masculine. And that made him unlike anyone she'd ever met before." Am I the only one who thinks this is funny? Despite myself, I've been eyeing corked bottles. Should I send a message in a bottle?
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Kamui-ojiisan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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O poveste de dragoste care împletește speranța cu durerea. Care-ți rupe sufletul și te cutremură.
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