The Notebook (novel)

Background

This was Nicholas Sparks' first published novel. It was the third written after The Passing and The Royal Murders, which he did not publish. He wrote it over a period of six months in 1994. Literary agent Theresa Park discovered Sparks by picking the book out of her agency's slush pile and reading it. Park offered to represent him. In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for the book from the Time Warner Book Group, and the novel was published in October 1996. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of release. The Notebook was a hardcover best seller for more than a year.

In interviews, Sparks said he was inspired to write the novel by the grandparents of his wife, who had been married for more than 60 years when he met them. In The Notebook, he tried to express the long romantic love of that couple.

Plot

The novel opens with Noah Calhoun, an old man, reading to a woman in a nursing home. He tells her the following story:

The man stops reading the story at this point, and implies to the audience that he is reading to his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and does not recognize him. Throughout the story he explains he is also ill, battling a third cancer, and suffering heart disease, kidney failure, and severe arthritis in his hands.

He resumes reading the story and describing their life together: her career as a noted painter, their children, growing old together, and finally the diagnosis of Alzheimer's. He had changed the names in the story to protect her, but he is Noah and she is Allie. They walk together and Allie, although she does not recognize him, says she might feel something for him.

That night they have dinner together. Referring to the story, she can't quite remember who Allie chose. Recognizing her husband, she tells him that she loves him. They embrace and talk, but after almost four hours, Allie fades. She begins to panic and hallucinate. She forgets who Noah is again. The nurses have to come in and they have to sedate her.

Later Noah has a stroke and cannot visit Allie. When he recovers he visits Allie late at night, as he is staying in the same care home. Noah tries to sneak past the nurse station, the nurse on duty pretends that she is going for a coffee, even though she has one on the counter and tells Noah she won't be back for a while. And not to do anything while she is away. Noah realises it is just a ruse to let him go see Allie and he finds Allie in bed in her room, asleep. She wakes up and recognizes him as Noah and tells him that she loves him. They kiss and fall asleep next to each other, believing their love will take them away together.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into a popular film of the same name, in 2004. The Indian Bollywood film, Zindagi Tere Naam, starring Mithun Chakraborty, is also based on it. A Bengali film named "Niyoti," The plot of the film was inspired by The Notebook.

A television series based on the novel is also being developed by writer Todd Graff, who will also exec produce along with Sparks and Theresa Park for the Warner Bros. Television and Nicholas Sparks Productions.