Mary Styles asked Nicholas Sparks:

Dear Nicholas, as a reader, and also a librarian, you are my favourite author. Each story is different. Each one brings me to tears. For your new book “The Return”, was there any research you needs to do to write this story? It sounds compelling.. Thank you for all you do to touch our lives with your characters and your plots. Sincerely, Mary Wonnacott- Styles

Nicholas Sparks In “The Return,” Trevor Benson, a former military doctor, struggles with PTSD. While characters in the military have featured in many of my books, such as “Dear John” and “The Lucky One,” I spent a lot of time talking with military veterans about their struggles with PTSD in order to make Trevor as real as possible. The most important thing that I learned from these discussions is that PTSD is a long-term chronic issue that one must manage throughout one’s life. In the case of Trevor Benson, not only did the explosion in Afghanistan blow him up physically, it also blew up everything that he thought he knew about his life: his career, and who he was.

Trevor has to learn to heal while acknowledging this life-long component to PTSD. The more I spoke with veterans, the more I realized that managing PTSD is a completely individualized process, as the consequences of PTSD are as unique as the individuals themselves. Some have minor cases, while others have more intense manifestations. For some people, PTSD includes nightmares and flash tempers. Some struggle with addiction. Others will say, “I’m perfectly fine – except my hands shake all the time.”

In doing my research, one of the techniques of dealing with PTSD is distraction. It is a skill that Trevor employs that ends up critical for the plot of the book, as Callie is a distraction, as is the mystery about his grandfather. If one is feeling upset, you try to distract yourself, and Callie and his grandfather serve as distractions. Further, developing meaningful relationships is a key component of the healing process, and Callie, Natalie, and Trevor all do this with each other, each learning how to trust again.

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