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A Walk to Remember is a novel by bestselling American romance-writer Nicholas Sparks. It was adapted into a movie in 2002. The novel, set in 1958 in the coastal North Carolina town of Beaufort, builds on the brand Sparks established with his 1996 historical romance novel, The Notebook. This North Carolina setting is also a locale of subsequent works such as Nights in Rodanthe. A common theme of Sparks’s novels is the juxtaposition of two time periods: the present and the past; an older person remembers a long-ago love.

In 1999, the narrator reflects on his life in 1958. He promises to tell us what happened that year.

In the fall of his senior year, Landon Carter is popular and confused about what he wants to do in life. His father suggests that he run for student body president because it will look good on college applications. He wins the election, but then has no date for Homecoming. He’s embarrassed to be seen with Jamie Sullivan, who comes from a religious Baptist family that has a feud with his rich family. However, she prevents an ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend from beating him up at the dance.

Jamie asks Landon for a favor – to play the lead male role in her father’s Christmas play. He is reluctant, but he agrees when Jamie cries and says that she wants it to be special this year. As they attend rehearsals, Landon learns that Jamie carries a Bible with her everywhere because it belonged to her mother who died a few years ago. He also learns that she wishes to get married in church and have her father give her away.

After spending a lot of time with Jamie, Landon becomes frustrated and snaps at her. He tells her that he can’t wait for the play to end so things can go back to normal. She thanks him for walking her home and seems upset by his comment but goes on stage anyway. The next day, Landon regrets saying those things because he has feelings for Jamie but doesn’t know how she feels about him yet. It’s the first performance of the play and he’s nervous about delivering the line “You’re beautiful” because it isn’t true; he only thinks she is pretty when she wears jeans and boots instead of dresses like today. But then, when Landon sees Jamie onstage in front of everyone, without her bun or makeup on, he realizes that there really is something captivating about this girl who plays his sister.

Jamie asks Landon to collect the jars she has placed in stores around town. When he sees how little is raised, he gives her the money himself. Jamie is grateful and invites him to Christmas Eve at the orphanage. He meets her there on Christmas Day and kisses her outside his house. The next day, they go home together, where she tells him that she’s dying of leukemia.

Landon watches Jamie waste away and prays for a miracle. He begins reading the Bible with her, as well as paying for her care so that she can spend her last weeks at home.

Jamie is a girl who was born with spina bifida. She has been in a wheelchair for most of her life, but she’s still as happy and energetic as anyone else. One day, when Jamie falls asleep while Landon is talking to her, he comes across the Bible passage: “I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it to the earnestness of others” (1 Cor 16:2). He interprets this as a direct command from God to fulfill Jamie’s wish and marry her. When 57-year-old Landon recalls that day that he married Jamie in church—with hundreds of people gathered around them—he knows that it will be his dying memory. The text ends on an ambiguous spiritual note stating that Landon believes in miracles since he still wears his wedding ring from that day.