Nights in Rodanthe

Nights in Rodanthe is a 2002 drama-romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. Set mainly in the town of Rodanthe, North Carolina, the novel chronicles the star-crossed relationship between a single mother, Adrienne Willis, and single father, Dr. Paul Flanner. Willis and Flanner meet at an inn, fall in love, and then are swept apart by their respective destinies. The main plotline, which takes place in 1988, is told from Willis’s point of view as she tells the story to her daughter in 2002, while helping her through a period of depression. The story, which has also been adapted into a 2008 film of the same name, is loosely based on Sparks’s own relationship with Cathy Cole, the woman whom he eventually married.

Nights in Rodanthe begins in 2002 in the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Willis, now an empty nester, meets her daughter, Amanda. Amanda’s husband has recently died, and she is struggling to cope with her grief while taking care of her three children. Willis herself has three children, and long ago, while raising Amanda and her siblings, she dealt with the loss of someone she loved. In the hope of helping Amanda heal through the knowledge of their mutual suffering, she tells her the story of Paul Flanner and the relationship they had in 1988.

Shortly before meeting Flanner, Willis was left by her husband for another woman. In the years that followed, she raised their children single-handedly, while taking care of her elderly father. One week, while especially exhausted, a chance for respite comes in the form of an offer to take care of a friend’s inn in Rodanthe. Willis agrees, finding a temporary caretaker for her children. When she reaches the inn, a storm brews over Rodanthe, and soon cuts Willis off from the rest of the world. A single guest, the surgeon Dr. Flanner, arrives, having just sold his private practice and house to search for a retreat from the world. Flanner is recovering after a traumatic surgery that he and his colleagues botched, killing the patient. He also struggles with a recent divorce.



Over the few days they spend together at the inn, Flanner and Willis fall in love. After the honeymoon period, they become anxious that they must part ways when the storm passes. Flanner relates that he intends to reconnect with his estranged son, who is off on a humanitarian medical mission in Ecuador. The two say their farewells; Willis returns to Rocky Mount, and Flanner goes to Ecuador. Over the next few months, they keep in touch by writing each other letters. On the day they are supposed to meet again, Willis receives news that Flanner has died in a landslide.

At the novel’s end, Flanner’s son, having reconnected with his father, visits Willis and gives her a box of his personal effects. He thanks her for helping to return Flanner to him. Back in the present, Willis’s story helps Amanda understand that life can go on after losing a loved one. A story of second chances, Nights in Rodanthe ends on this note of mutual catharsis, suggesting that sharing the experience of grief is a necessary step in recovering from it.