Message In a Bottle
Description
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, discovers it 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 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. Challenged by the mystery, and driven 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 either by chance or something more powerful, Theresa and Garrett's lives come together in a tale that resonates with our deepest hopes for finding 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 an achingly lovely novel of happenstance, desire, and the choices that matter most.
Did You Know
Theresa was named after Nicholas's agent, Theresa Park?
The novel was sold to Warner Brothers when it was only half complete?
The first draft of the screenplay was finished on the same day the novel was finished?
Description
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, discovers it 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 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. Challenged by the mystery, and driven 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 either by chance or something more powerful, Theresa and Garrett's lives come together in a tale that resonates with our deepest hopes for finding 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 an achingly lovely novel of happenstance, desire, and the choices that matter most.
Film/TV Sales
A major motion picture, starring Kevin Costner, Paul Newman, and Robin Wright Penn, released in 1999 by Warner Brothers. The DVD is widely available.
Background Info
I had a choice after the success of The Notebook as to what kind of book I should write next. I could play it safe, I thought, and write a book that was essentially the same as The Notebook, one that dealt with the same theme of everlasting, unconditional love. That would have been easy since I'd already done it once and I had no doubt that I could make the story interesting. I could invent a couple of older characters, tell how they'd fallen in love in the beginning of their lives, add a "test" of some sort later in life, and have the love remain true throughout it all. Yet part of the magic of The Notebook was not knowing what was going to happen in the story, and no matter what I wrote, it would be impossible to recreate that "magic" since part of it came from "not knowing" what would happen in the story. I like to put it into these terms: Suppose you went to a magic show and saw a trick that enthralled you. Then later, while at home, you learn how the trick was performed. No matter what you did, the next time you saw the trick, you wouldn't feel the same way you did the first time you saw it.
That's what I thought would happen if I tried to write a novel that was exactly the same, and I figured that if I did that again, there would come a time that no one would read my books, since they already knew the story in advance.
I knew, however, that I had to write another love story, so I decided to change the story by using a different theme. This time, I chose the theme love after grief, and again I turned to my family for inspiration.
Message in a Bottle was inspired by my father after the death of my mother. In 1989, six weeks after I was married, my mother and father went horseback riding. They were avid riders and very comfortable on horses, and were simply walking the horses along a scenic trail. For a reason that no one can explain -- we assume it was the horse, a rather skittish Arabian -- my mom fell out of the saddle, off the horse, hit her head on a rock, had a cerebral hemorrhage and died.
My mother and father had married at the age of twenty-one and my father was absolutely crushed by her death. They'd been married twenty-seven years and my father didn't have the slightest idea of what it meant to be a grown-up without my mom. A lot of people wear black to a funeral. My father wore black every day for four years. He pretty much became a recluse. He pulled away from his family and friends, he stopped going out, he stopped doing pretty much everything. All he did was go to work and back home again. It was heart-breaking to watch.
After four long years of worrying about him, my father finally started taking baby steps out in the world again. He started reconnecting with family and friends, eventually he started to date again -- think more years passing -- eventually he met someone in particular, eventually he fell in love again. And then one day, about seven years after my mom had died, I got a call from my father. "I'm engaged," he said.
I was thrilled, not because I didn't care about my mom -- I adored her -- but because I'd been so worried about my father. Kids worry about their parents the same way parents worry about their kids, and I was glad that he'd finally found someone.
Two days after that phone call, my father was driving home late one night, fell asleep at the wheel of his car, crashed, and died.
After the novel came out, there were times when I couldn't believe the reaction to it. People were very upset by the ending. Even though I write tragedies, Garrett's death at the end of the novel came as a surprise to many readers. Now that you understand the parallels with my father's story, perhaps it makes sense now. Yet I want you to know that I didn't write the story simply to "share the misery," so to speak. Rather, I wrote it because of the lessons that I learned from what my father went through; namely, that no matter how hard and terrible life can be at times, it's possible to move on. Because Garrett Blake had been able to move on no matter how painful it was -- the theme was love after grief, remember -- it should be obvious that one day, Theresa Osborne will fall in love again. That was, after all, the lesson behind the novel.
Notes on Writing the Book
The novel was written during two periods, spring and summer 1996 and spring of 1997. In between, I went on a major book tour for The Notebook and was largely away from home for months at a time. With so many interviews and signings, I had no time to work on it.
When I was about halfway through with the novel (early spring 1997), my agent suggested that we send what was written, along with a detailed outline for the remaining half of the novel, to my agents in Hollywood for presentation to various studios. My agent suggested we change the title from Letters to Catherine to Message in a Bottle, since my original title sounded too much like a correspondence. They ended up being right. It was sold in that as-yet incomplete form to Warner Brothers, with Denise DiNovi producing. I finished the first draft of the novel in June 1997. The final editing was complete by August 1997, and the novel was released the following spring.
The novel didn't need much major work with the exception of trimming, and the first draft was fairly close to the final product. The one major issue I dealt with during the editing process was making Catherine, the deceased wife, a more integral part of the novel. In the first draft, she was largely a shadowy figure and my editor felt we needed to "breathe life into her ghost" for the novel to take on a richer meaning. To do that, I added various snippets of their life together in memory form, and worked those into the narrative. These snippets had to tell a story as well, and I decided to add in the fact that Catherine was pregnant when she died, which made Garrett's grief all that much more understandable. I also added a couple of dreams, to more fully explore their relationship.
A couple of small, yet interesting points: Theresa was named after my agent, Theresa Park, then of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (she left in 2005 to start her own agency, The Park Literary Group). Catherine is the name of my wife. One of the dates in the letters is the date of my wedding anniversary. Garrett's name was chosen with care, because Theresa had to be able to find him in a city the size of Wilmington (100,000) based on limited knowledge. The name couldn't be too common, or too strange. "Garrett" seemed to fit the bill. Deanna was named after a friend who wanted her name in a novel.
Reviews
"Deeply moving, beautifully written, and extremely romantic."
-- Booklist
"A book that will stay with you always."
-- Salisbury Post
"Poignant. . . A must-read for anyone who doubts that for each person there exists a perfect mate."
-- Woman's Own
"An experience you won't soon forget. . . Nicholas Sparks captures love's unimaginable strength but also shows us tremendous fragility."
-- Abilene Reporter-News
"A three-hanky love story."
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
FAQ
Why did Garrett have to die at the end of the story?
Because the story was inspired by my father, I thought it best to end the novel as it did for me in real life. Romeo and Juliet had a far more tragic ending by the way, and I don't read a lot of complaints about that story! At the same time, I thought the conclusion gave the novel ...
Will there be a sequel to Message in a Bottle?
Currently, there aren't any plans for that, though I can't say there will never be a sequel. I enjoyed writing Theresa Osborne's character, and if a good story comes up that can feature her again, I just might.
Why was the film so different from the novel?
It wasn't all that different, in my opinion. Yes, there were small changes: (a) the introduction of Catherine's family; (b) Theresa was an assistant rather than a columnist; (c) the elimination of Deanna as a character; (d) the fact that Garrett didn't teach diving anymore; and (e) having G ...
Tell me about the letters in the novel. Were they easy to write?
No, each letter took about a day to get just right. There's a fine balance between being too sweet and cloying, and writing something meaningful and memorable. Based on the response to those letters, most readers thought I achieved a good balance.
Why was it so much longer than The Notebook?
Because the story was more complicated. There were more relationships to explore, the contemporary relationship in the novel covered a longer time period, and there were a variety of settings.
Were the characters based on anyone you know?
Though Garrett was inspired by my father, the characters were largely products of my imagination.
Was it difficult to write from the perspective of a thirty-six year old divorced woman?
It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. With any character, authors try to imagine themselves as that person, and creating a character like Theresa simply takes the form of questions. How does she see her life? What bothers her about men? How does her son influence any relationship she mig ...
Book Club/Discussion Questions
1. The prologue that begins Message in a Bottle reveals how the bottle traveled from North Carolina to Cape Cod. It also recounts the journeys of other messages, including one from a shipwrecked sailor that washed up after 150 years in the same village where he had been born. In light of this information, do you think that coincidence or fate led Theresa Osborne to find the bottle?
2. Why are Garrett’s messages to Catherine so compelling? What makes Theresa react so powerfully?
3. Garrett’s boat is named Happenstance. What does the name mean and do you think it applies to the chain of events in the story?
4. Before her death, Catherine makes Garrett promise that he’ll find someone else if she dies before him. His own father says, “You’ve got to let go.” Why can’t he?
5. Catherine’s death is a tragedy and raises the age-old question: why do bad things happen to good people? Do you have an answer?
6. Theresa leaves her jacket on Happenstance. Do you think she did it deliberately? Garrett thinks he is being manipulated by her when she asks about “the worst thing you’ve ever done.” He feels the same way when he finds out she found the bottle and didn’t tell him. Is Theresa manipulative? If so, do Theresa’s actions make you trust her less?
7. Do you think Garrett idealized his relationship with Catherine or was it really as wonderful as he remembers?
8. Having a long-distance relationship is a problem for Theresa and Garrett as it is for many couples. How do you think couples should resolve the issue? How do you think Theresa and Garrett should have dealt with it?
9. Couples today face different challenges than those of former generations. What obstacles to love existed for your parents’ or your grandparents’ generation and how do they differ from those encountered by couples today?
10. Discuss Theresa’s relationship with her son. Do you think she’s doing a good job raising him? Do you envision any difficulties ahead for either of them?
11. We hear a lot about dreams in this book. What is the significance of these dreams and what do they reveal? Have you ever had dreams that seem to carry such symbolic meaning in your own life?
12. Garrett says: “He had never questioned whether he and Catherine were a team.” How important is teamwork in a marriage? What, besides distance, is wrong with Theresa and Garrett’s relationship?
13. Were you surprised by Garrett’s actions toward the end of the book? Do you view them as totally reckless, or do you understand why he put himself in such danger? What does this say about Garrett?
14. Was the fact that Theresa was able to find evidence of three letters plausible? Why or why not?
15. How did you react to the ending of the book? Could the book have ended any other way?
16. Did you see the movie version of Message in a Bottle? If so, do you think it was true to the novel?
Foreign Sales
- Arabic / Jarir Books
- China / Bertelsmann Asia
- France / Laffont
- Germany / Heyne
- Greece / Livanis
- Hungary / General Press
- Italy / Sperling & Kupfer
- Japan / Sony
- Poland / Bertelsmann Media
- Russia / AST
- Spain / Emece Editores
- Thai / Matichon
- UK / Time Warner
Published: 1998