Wish You Were Here - A Novel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Small Great Things and
The Book of Two Ways comes “a powerfully evocative story of resilience and
the triumph of the human spirit” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven
Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six) Rights sold to Netflix
for adaptation as a feature film • Named one of the best books of the year
by She Reads Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by
thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City
suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art
auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss
has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile
client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a
surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the
Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a
virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of
their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the
hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since
it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And
so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes
awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel
they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island
is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen.
Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she
carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret
opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders. In the
Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection
was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices,
and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved
into someone completely different. This edition contains a short story,
discussion questions, and an excerpt from Jodi Picoult’s next novel.