''When Nicholas The Notebook Sparks publishes his first Christmas novel, you know it''s going to be special ... A real Christmas cracker'' HEAT

What if the person you needed most, turned up when you least expected them?

The international #1 bestselling author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks is back with his most epic story yet

Maggie hasn''t told this story in years. More than two decades ago, she fell in love. She was sixteen and far from home, waiting to give her baby up for adoption. Bryce showed Maggie how to take photographs and he didn''t judge her for the way her belly swelled under her jumper. They had the perfect first kiss. Theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love.

Now, as Maggie sits by the Christmas tree in her gallery telling her story, surrounded by the photographs that made her famous - the photographs Bryce never saw - her new gallery assistant asks her a question. If she had one wish, what would she wish for this Christmas?

Maggie always thought she knew the answer to that question. But before she can say ''I''d go back to that winter with Bryce'', she stops herself. It is all she has ever wanted but suddenly here, on this dark night under the twinkling stars, there is something else she wants. She wants to find her baby.

A heart-wrenching and uplifting story about discovery and loss, The Wish is a reminder that time with those precious to us is the greatest gift of all.

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Praise for Nicholas Sparks:

''This one won''t leave a dry eye'' Daily Mirror

''A fiercely romantic and touching tale'' Heat

''An A-grade romantic read'' OK!

''Pulls at the heartstrings'' Sunday Times

''An absorbing page-turner'' Daily Mail