Wish You Well

by David Baldacci

Book Overview

David Baldacci has always delivered great stories, authentic characters, and thought-provoking ideas since he burst on the literary scene with Absolute Power. Now this versatile writer movingly evokes the charms of rural America as he makes us believe in the great and little miracles that can change lives -- or save them.Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes --...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739413449
• ISBN13: 9780739413449
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Warner Books, New York
• Length: 401 Pages
• Weight: 80.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Appalachian life

If you like books with well defined characters & places, get this book. It was thoroughly enjoyable. When a published author living in the New York area dies in a car crash & his wife is unable to care for herself or their 2 children, the wife & kids are sent to live with the children's great-grandmother in the Appalachians. There they find their great-grandmother working a small farm with the help of 2 young men. She takes on the three new months to feed and gradually teaches the 2 children how to live a simpler life as well as taking on the responsibility of the care of their mother.

Great Book

This book is totally different from other Baldacci novels. It takes place on a mountain near the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia after WWI. The central characters are two children: Lou and her little brother Oz. Other characters include their great-grandmother, a black man she had taken in as a child when he was orphaned and a lawyer named Cotton Longfellow. The reader learns about the tough life of the local farmers and how the lumber and coal mining businesses affected the area. I couldn't put the book down. Highly recommended.

Good read

I enjoyed this book

Wish You Well is an excellent read

Excellent book. Loved the characters.

Great "classic" story

Shows the great diversity of David Baldacci (like John Grisham and his "The Painted House") -- wonderful characters that you fall in love with and feel part of their family. Also reminds me some of Where the Crawdads Sing for its' human emotion and drama. I read this a few years ago and passed it on to others to read, but I will probably buy this again just to keep as a classic story if someone who visits me wants to read it

Made me tear up!

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a well written, captivating story with engaging characters.

Wish you Well

Loved this story. Such good characters and story lines.

Wonderful Story!

I really enjoyed reading this book! It hit all of my emotions! Wonderful ending! Thank you for such a wonderful read! David, job well done and would love more of your writings along this kind of story line! Can you tell I loved your book?!? I'm keeping the book to read again.

Wish You Well is a wonderful book! I wish Baldacci wrote more like this.

This is a wonderful book for Adults and Young Adults. I could not put the book down. A moving family story told very well by Baldacci!

With change comes new beginnings

I truly enjoyed this book! Wish You Well is a story of change, acceptance, life lessons and so much more. David Baldacci kept my interest with his storytelling and I look forward to reading more like this. What a wonderful read!!!

Couldn't put it down

Read this book twice. As soon as I finished it I reread it. This is such a well told story about family, love, challenges, and overcoming hardship. Recommend it wholeheartedly!

A wonderful journey through a bygone era and the story of love,growing up, family, faith and how won

I really enjoyed this book. I have read all of David Baldacci's books. His scope of writing hits all of ones senses. I loved going back in time and living with this family through all the ups and downs of life. I suggest this book for all levels but especially book clubs where it can be shared and passed on to more people. THANKS DAVID...you have done it again!

Wish You Well book review

I couldn't put this book down. The characters are richly drawn; story is powerful. This was a very thoughtful and suspenseful story.

TAKE ME HOME...COUNTRY HOME...

Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. It is not a thriller but, rather, a beautifully written, human drama, most of which takes place in the mountains of Virginia. This is a coming of age story. It is the story of the Cardinal family, as seen throught the young eyes of twelve year old Louisa Mae Cardinal, known as Lou, a precocious twelve year old, whose father is a highly acclaimed writer of note with great literary distinction but little commercial success. She lives with her beloved father, her mother, and her younger brother, Oz, in New York City. The year is 1940. The family is on the brink of moving to California, when tragedy strikes, and the lives of Lou, Oz, and their mother are forever changed. Lou, Oz, and their now catatonic mother go to live with their paternal great-grandmother, Louisa, for whom Lou is named. This no nonsense, strong willed, loving matriarch lives high up in the the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Lou's father grew up, and that is where Lou and Oz will now grow up. They are strangers in a strange land, big city children now living on a farm without electricity, running water, or central heat. It is there that Lou comes of age and, together with her brother, Oz, has many new experiences. They are experiences that provide rights of passage and life lessons in friendship, loyalty, loss, and redemption. She gets a large dose of the good, the bad, and the ugly in life. While there, big business threatens their way of life and pits the townsfolk against each other in a struggle for survival. It is a struggle that sees Louisa take a stance that will, ultimately, be the death of her, leaving the children to cope with their mother, who is physically sound, but locked in her own mind since the tragedy that changed their lives forever. The interests of big business and those of the Cardinal family clash in a Virginia courtroom in a riveting drama that is not easily forgotten. With the help of a family friend, a humble and kindly, country lawyer, things are, eventually, put to rights. This well written book has richly drawn characters and a sensitive and descriptive narrative that transports the reader to another time and place. It is so evocative of the hardscrabble, mountain existence, so as to make the readers feel as if they, themselves, were experiencing it. It is a sentimental journey that is calculated to tug at one's heartstrings. It is a journey, however, well worth taking. With this book, the author has set himself apart from the pack and proclaimed himself a true literary talent.

TAKE ME HOME...COUNTRY HOME...

Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. It is not a thriller but, rather, a beautifully written, human drama, most of which takes place in the mountains of Virginia. The richness of the drama and the beauty of the writing convey the down home sense of feeling that is palpable in the book. This is a coming of age story. It is the story of the Cardinal family, as seen through the young eyes of twelve year old Louisa Mae Cardinal, known as Lou, a precocious twelve year old, whose father is a highly acclaimed writer of note with great literary distinction but little commercial success. She lives with her beloved father, her mother, and her younger brother, Oz, in New York City. The year is 1940. The family is on the brink of moving to California, when tragedy strikes, and the lives of Lou, Oz, and their mother are forever changed. Lou, Oz, and their now catatonic mother go to live with their paternal great-grandmother, Louisa, for whom Lou is named. This no nonsense, strong willed, loving matriarch lives high up in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Lou's father grew up, and that is where Lou and Oz will now grow up. They are strangers in a strange land, big city children now living on a farm without electricity, running water, or central heat. It is there that Lou comes of age and, together with her brother, Oz, has many new experiences. They are experiences that provide rights of passage and life lessons in friendship, loyalty, loss, and redemption. She gets a large dose of the good, the bad, and the ugly in life. While there, big business threatens their way of life and pits the townsfolk against each other in a struggle for survival. It is a struggle that sees Louisa take a stance that will, ultimately, be the death of her, leaving the children to cope with their mother, who is physically sound, but locked in her own mind since the tragedy that changed their lives forever. The interests of big business and those of the Cardinal family clash in a Virginia courtroom in a riveting drama that is not easily forgotten. With the help of a family friend, a humble and kindly, country lawyer, things are, eventually, put to rights. This well written book has richly drawn characters and a sensitive and descriptive narrative that transports the reader to another time and place. It is so evocative of the hardscrabble, mountain existence, so as to make the readers feel as if they, themselves, were experiencing it. It is a sentimental journey that is calculated to tug at one's heartstrings. It is a journey, however, well worth taking. With this book, the author has set himself apart from the pack and proclaimed himself a true literary talent.

TAKE ME HOME...COUNTRY HOME...

Having read a number of David Baldacci's books, most of which are well written, engrossing thrillers, this one is quite different. It is not a thriller but, rather, a beautifully written, human drama, most of which takes place in the mountains of Virginia. In this unabridged, audiobook edition, the richness of the drama and the beauty of the writing is brought to life by the wonderful narration of Norma Lana, who manages to convey the down home sense of feeling that is palpable in the book. This is a coming of age story. It is the story of the Cardinal family, as seen throught the young eyes of twelve year old Louisa Mae Cardinal, known as Lou, a precocious twelve year old, whose father is a highly acclaimed writer of note with great literary distinction but little commercial success. She lives with her beloved father, her mother, and her younger brother, Oz, in New York City. The year is 1940. The family is on the brink of moving to California, when tragedy strikes, and the lives of Lou, Oz, and their mother are forever changed.Lou, Oz, and their now catatonic mother go to live with their paternal great-grandmother, Louisa, for whom Lou is named. This no nonsense, strong willed, loving matriarch lives high up in the the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, where Lou's father grew up, and that is where Lou and Oz will now grow up. They are strangers in a strange land, big city children now living on a farm without electricity, running water, or central heat. It is there that Lou comes of age and, together with her brother, Oz, has many new experiences. They are experiences that provide rights of passage and life lessons in friendship, loyalty, loss, and redemption. She gets a large dose of the good, the bad, and the ugly in life.While there, big business threatens their way of life and pits the townsfolk against each other in a struggle for survival. It is a struggle that sees Louisa take a stance that will, ultimately, be the death of her, leaving the children to cope with their mother, who is physically sound, but locked in her own mind since the tragedy that changed their lives forever. The interests of big business and those of the Cardinal family clash in a Virginia courtroom in a riveting drama that is not easily forgotten. With the help of a family friend, a humble and kindly, country lawyer, things are, eventually, put to rights.This well written book has richly drawn characters and a sensitive and descriptive narrative that transports the reader to another time and place. It is so evocative of the hardscrabble, mountain existence, so as to make the readers feel as if they, themselves, were experiencing it. It is a sentimental journey that is calculated to tug at one's heartstrings. It is a journey, however, well worth taking. With this book, the author has set himself apart from the pack and proclaimed himself a true literary talent.

Out of Character

I'm reading what I think is a really wonderful book now. Its called Wishing You Well by David Baldacci. He normally writes thrillers like Absolute Power, however, this time he steps out of his genre to write a really beautiful character novel. If you've read his other stuff as I have, it will take you 50 - 75 pages to realize that this is a special book. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. I like character novels now so take my praise in that light. It's a wonderful read. The characters touch something way down inside of me. Maybe because I spent some time in Appalachia growing up and knew a lot of transplanted coal miners that this story is special, but I think it has a lot to say to everyone.