The notebook

It is almost Valentine’s Day so I thought I could share one of my favourite love stories; The Notebook. It is a beautiful romantic novel written by Nicholas Sparks in 1996. It is a story of everlasting love and it shows the many obstacles love can go through. But if it’s real than it is worth everything.

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The story begins with Noah, an 80 year old man, reading a story from a notebook to a woman in a nursing home. The story takes them back to 1946 to the beautiful town called New Bern, North Carolina. And this is where a beautiful adventure begins, when Noah Calhoun meets a young woman called Allie Nelson. They fell in love very quickly and the summer went by too quickly. But as the summer comes to an end, Allie must move back home and leave Noah behind. Noah is devastated but he refuses to let her go. He writes a letter each day for a year, but with no reply.

Seven years go by without them being in contact with each other but the memories from their summer together are still strong. After Noah’s father dies he decides to restore his plantation-style home, a gorgeous house that gets a picture in the paper. And that is when Allie sees Noah for the first time. He had promised her to restore the house and she could not believe he had actually done it.

They then meet, for the first time since their summer romance, and the memories and feelings are quickly coming back. But of course there are complications. Allie is seeing someone else and her parents don’t want her to be with Noah, a poor farmer boy. Questions of whether they should be together causes troubles and the story from the notebook takes some unexpected turns as the woman in the nursing home is trying to remember what the story is really about.

I absolutely love this book. It is so beautiful, sad and romantic and very well written. I have to admit that the first time I heard about this epic love story was when I saw the film The Notebook. I completely fell in love with it and when I found out it was based on a book I had to read it. The film and the book is actually very different and I found that as I was reading the book I kept comparing it to the film. Usually it is the other way around for me; I compare the film to the book so this was a new experience for me. But I actually love them both. The book is fantastic and if you’re looking for something to read this weekend then I recommend this book.