Counting Miracles: A Novel
From the acclaimed author of The Longest Ride and The Notebook comes an emotional, powerful novel about wondering if we can change--or even make our peace with--the path we've taken. Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather's military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone: happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew--and where to find him. Tanner is due at his next posting soon, but his curiosity is piqued, and he sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He's been in town less than twenty-four hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection; Tanner knows Kaitlyn has a story to tell, and he wants to hear it. To Kaitlyn, Tanner is mysterious, exciting--and possibly leaving in just a few weeks. Meanwhile, nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin bordering a national forest. With only his old dog, Arlo, for company, he lives quietly, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest--a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather--he becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers. As these characters' fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle . . . but that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever.
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Community Reviews
A man’s search for a biological father commences with a parking lot fender bender with a teen driver and an immediate, intense connection with the driver’s mother. “This woman has a story to tell,” he wants to know what it is. Their unexpected encounter leads to a whirlwind week with her family until the abrupt demise of their relationship over a romantic dinner when she turns “into a referendum on his life choices.” Meanwhile, an elderly man hovers “in the twilight between consciousness and unconsciousness, his mind a carousel of frozen memories.”
Tanner confronts a crossroads, torn between his nomadic existence and a shared life of love that is more than just an emotion. “Despite his desire to live a life of meaning, his decisions always seemed to reflect the conviction that his real life was going to be found somewhere else, just beyond the next horizon.” Kaitlyn “subscribed to the notion that life is less about the what and where than about the who…purpose can be found in caring intimately for those she loved, and for others in need, in a place that felt like home.”
A “broken heart also means that there was a time when it wasn’t broken, when my heart was light and full. Loving…brought joy and meaning to my life, and I wouldn’t have traded that love for anything else in the world…What you have to figure out first, though, is who you are and what you really want, so you’ll know what to say when you do.” In her last words, Tanner’s grandmother admonishes, “Find where you belong and make that place your own.” This contemporary retelling of the biblical book of Job, Nicholas Sparks’ Counting Miracles is a tribute to family, home, love, and legacy.
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