Recently selected as the #1 Best Author by Entertainment Weekly, Nicholas Sparks is one of America's preeminent storytellers. Now, Sparks spins a tale about a man, a woman, and the devastating secret that threatens to keep them apart... A Bend in the Road.

Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. His high school sweetheart, Missy had been his first love, and Miles truly believes she will be his last. The sheriff of the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice as well.

Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews. The second grade teacher of his only child Jonah, Sarah had left Baltimore after a difficult divorce to start over in the gentler surroundings of New Bern. Perhaps it is her own emotional wounds that makes her sensitive to the hurt she first sees in Jonah's eyes, and then his father's. Tentatively, Sarah and Miles reach out to each other. Soon, they are both laughing again for the first time in years — and falling in love.

Neither will be able to guess how linked they are by a tie to the past that will force them to question everything they ever believed in — a truth that can keep them apart forever.

In A Bend in the Road, Nicholas Sparks writes with a luminous intensity about life's bitter turns and incomparable sweetness. His affirming message carries a powerful lesson about the imperfections of being human, the mistakes we all make, and the joy that comes when we give ourselves to love.

"Sweet, accessible, uplifting and predictable, the latest love story from Sparks leaves the reader with just one burning question: Why is this consummate beach book being published in the fall?....The opposite of edgy, with simple sentences and soft-pedaled sex, Sparks's plain vanilla morality will doubtless sell like ice cream on a steamy day." Publishers Weekly

Nicholas Sparks's last novel, The Rescue, was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and his previous books — The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, and A Walk to Remember — were international bestsellers that were translated into more than thirty languages and adapted into major motion pictures. Nicholas Sparks lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.