Every Breath

Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. At thirty-six she has been dating her boyfriend, an orthopaedic surgeon, for six years with no wedding plans in sight, and her father has just been diagnosed with ALS. She takes a week at her family's cottage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, to ready the house for sale and to think through some difficult decisions about her future.

Tru Walls has never set foot in North Carolina, but he is summoned to Sunset Beach by a letter from a man claiming to be his father. A safari guide born and raised in Zimbabwe, he hopes to unravel the mysteries around his mother's early life and recover memories lost with her death.

When the two strangers cross paths, the connection between them is as electric as it is unfathomable — and in the days that follow, their feelings give way to choices that pit family duty against personal happiness in devastating ways. Nicholas Sparks's novel spans decades and continents, and asks how long a dream can survive.