Nicholas Sparks has a talent for making you weepy. His 24th novel, "Counting Miracles," which leapt to the top of the New York Times bestseller list in its first week and is already slated for a film adaptation, is no exception. The story of an Army Ranger's search for the father he never knew — and of the woman who steals his heart along the way — is replete with the classic Sparks themes of heartbreak, tragedy, loneliness, second chances, plenty of emotional plot twists and of course, romance. Taking inspiration from the Book of Job, Sparks explained during a recent Salon Talks conversation that the novel "explores the question of why bad things happen to people. I certainly think that that is an experience that most people can relate to." Sparks's fans agree — a recent Goodreads review enthuses that "The snot bubbles were bubbling the entire time I was reading this book."

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Your latest book, “Counting Miracles," will be your 24th novel. You have said that you always want to challenge yourself and you never want to repeat yourself. What's different about this one?

This one differs from something like, “The Notebook,” or “Message in a Bottle,” or “Dear John,” in that there's actually two stories going on. There's an “A” story and a “B” story, and of course, I've tried to make the characters very different from characters that I've created in the past. There's a fairly strong Biblical allusion in this novel, which I had never done before.

Faith is really very much front and center. There are Bible verses in it, there's clearly allegories and parallels between the struggles of these characters and Biblical stories. Tell me about how you wove that together and what that means for this story.

Yeah, it's interesting. I wouldn't necessarily characterize this as a Christian book or a Jewish book. There's a character whose life largely follows the pattern established in Job, and it explores the question [of] why bad things happen to people.

I certainly think that that is an experience that most people can relate to, whether or not they believe, they look up and say, "This, too? I think I'm a little overwhelmed at the present time, but now my car got stolen, or now my best friend just got hit by a car. How can all this be happening at once?" I think that's a very universal feeling, and I wanted to capture that universality of, into every life, a little rain must pour.

To do that, I said, "Okay, the most well-known story about that is really the Book of Job," so that's where the title came from. There's a line in the Book of Job about how your life is filled with uncounted miracles, so this one I entitled “Counting Miracles.”

"I ask, 'What's your favorite book?' And so many people still say 'The Notebook.' And I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh, that means I've been going downhill for the last 25 years.'"

What does faith mean to you and what does it mean to be a Christian right now?

I'm coming up on 60 years old here, not quite there yet, but I'm coming up. About six years ago, I said, "You know, I want to feel more inner peace." And I said, "Okay, how do you do that?"

I spent a few years trying all sorts of things like mindfulness work, meditation, reading Zen Buddhism stuff, did some yoga, listening to tapes or things like that. What really resonated with me more than any of those was prayer, and it was a specific kind of prayer. I'm Christian, I was raised Catholic so I do my traditional Catholic prayers, but it was prayers of gratitude for all of those people in my life who have helped shape me into the person I am today. Maybe they helped me, maybe they said something to me that changed my life.

I remember once, for instance, I had a manager. I was working as a waiter, I had two job offers. "Do I take this one or this one?" One would've had me out........

© Salon