''The Last Song'' is a
2009 novel by American author
Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and philanthropist. He has published twenty-three novels and two non-fiction books, some of which have been ''New York Times'' bestsellers, with over 115 m ...
. ''The Last Song'' is Sparks's fourteenth published novel (fifteenth published book), and was written specifically as the basis for the
film adaptation by the same name. It was released on September 1, 2009 by
Grand Central Publishing
Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hache ...
. The story revolves around the summer of Veronica “Ronnie" Miller's seventeenth year, during which she is sent to stay with her estranged father. Through their shared love of music, the duo reconnect.
Plot
17-year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller is a troubled teenager who wants to live her own life and is trying her very best to ignore her divorced parents: Kim, her mother with whom she lives in New York, and Steve, her father who lives in his hometown of Wrightsville Beach, NC. Her mother decides that it would be in everyone's best interest if Ronnie and her 10-year-old brother, Jonah, spent the summer in Wrightsville Beach with Steve. Jonah is excited, while Ronnie can only wonder why her parents hate her so much as to send her there for the summer.
Once they arrive, Kim leaves and Ronnie runs off to the carnival down at the beach, where she watches a volleyball game in the crowd. As she turns to leave, one of the players, the privileged Will Blakelee, knocks into her while trying to reach the ball, spilling her soda all through the front of her shirt. He spills her slushie all over her and she is mad.
In search of a stand selling apparel, Ronnie bumps into Blaze, an estranged teen like herself, Blaze helps her find a T-shirt booth and they leave to watch a show by Marcus, Blaze's boyfriend, on the pier. The show includes "harmless" fireballs, and when it's over, the police run Marcus off. They go to sit under the pier, where Blaze heads off to get Marcus another beer. In Blaze's absence, Marcus attempts to hit on Ronnie, causing her to leave.
Later, when Ronnie finds a nest of Loggerhead turtle eggs in danger of raccoons behind her house, she decides to camp out next to it to save it. She learns that Will volunteers at the aquarium, and after a few nights of talking with him on the beach, she realizes she has feelings for him.
Ronnie then finds out that her dad has cancer. As his cancer progresses, she, Jonah, and Will finish piecing together a stained glass window while Ronnie also finishes her dad's song for him on the piano. Pastor Harris, Steve's friend, then installs the window in the new church. Kim arrives to say goodbye to Steve one last time and take Jonah home. Ronnie stays with Steve. Will had left in August to go to Vanderbilt; however, he shows up at the funeral once Steve has passed. He tells Ronnie that he is joining
Columbia with her.
Release
A book tour for ''The Last Song'' was announced on July 11, 2009 and reached around 13 cities.
Despite the relatively short tour, ''The Last Song'' debuted at number one on weekly bestseller charts. It headed the ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' and ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' charts for hardback fiction and the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' chart for fiction. According to ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
s chart, which combines sales of all formats of a book, ''The Last Song'' outsold all other titles in its first week. The book dropped to number 2 on all lists the following week, due to the release of
Dan Brown
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), '' The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), '' Inferno'' (2013), ...
's highly anticipated ''
The Lost Symbol
''The Lost Symbol'' is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of ''The Da Vinci Code'', and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters.
Rel ...
'', the sequel to ''
The Da Vinci Code
''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Lang ...
''.
Film adaptation
The film version of ''The Last Song'' was released in the U.S. on March 31, 2010,
Unlike previous adaptations of Sparks's novels, Sparks participated in writing the film's screenplay; after agreeing to the project, Sparks invited his college roommate Jeff Van Wie to co-write the script. With Van Wie's help, Sparks finished the screenplay before he began writing the novel.
''The Last Song'' is director
Julie Anne Robinson
Julie Anne Robinson is a British theatre, television, film director and producer based in the United States and United Kingdom. She is known for her work on '' The Catch,'' which she developed and executive produced with Shonda Rhimes, as well a ...
's first feature film. The film stars
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip ho ...
as Ronnie, along with
Greg Kinnear
Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997).
Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, including '' Sabrina'' (1 ...
as Steve,
Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth (born 13 January 1990) is an Australian actor. He played the roles of Josh Taylor in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' and Marcus in the children's television series ''The Elephant Princess''. In American films, Hemsworth starred as ...
as Will Blakelee,
Kelly Preston
Kelly Kamalelehua Smith (October 13, 1962 – July 12, 2020), known professionally as Kelly Preston, was an American actress. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including '' Mischief'' (1985), '' Twins'' (1988), ...
as Kim, and
Bobby Coleman
Robert Moorhouse Coleman III (born May 5, 1997) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as a child actor in the films '' Martian Child'' (2007), as the title character, and '' The Last Song'' (2010).
Life and career
Robert Coleman ...
as Jonah.
References
External links
The Last Songo
Nicholas Sparks's websitePrologue of ''The Last Song''published by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...
Prologue and first four chapters of ''The Last Song''published by
Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...
High quality book coverhosted by
Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Song
2009 American novels
American romance novels
Novels by Nicholas Sparks
Novels about cancer
Novels about death
Novels set in North Carolina
American young adult novels
American novels adapted into films
Grand Central Publishing books