Miles life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident. He still rises each morning to take care of his young son and carries out his duties as deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, but its all in a numb and hopeless haze. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, who is rebuilding her own life. Slowly, their newfound love starts to soothe the pain of the past. But when a devastating secret is revealed, they start questioning everything they ever believed in. Sparks previous hardcover, The Rescue (Warner Books, 9/00), was a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained on the list for 14 weeks. It has 912,000 hardcover copies in print. A New York Times hardcover bestseller for 56 weeks and paperback bestseller for 58, Nicholas Sparks debut novel, The Notebook (Warner, 1996), has over three million copies in hardcover and paperback print combined. The film rights have been optioned by New Line. Message in a Bottle has more than 2.5 million copies in hardcover and paperback print combined, and was a New York Times bestseller for a total of 33 weeks in all. The 1999 film starred Robin Wright Penn and Kevin Costner. A Walk to Remember (Warner, 10/99), which has more than 2.5 million copies in combined print, was an instant New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. Denise DiNovi (Message in a Bottle, Heathers, Practical Magic) of Warner Bros. will produce the film, which is currently in development.