Wish You Well

Wish You Well (October 2000) is a semi-autobiographical novel by crime writer David Baldacci. The book falls into the categories of Family Saga, Coming of Age Fiction, and Historical Mystery and is a departure from Baldacci’s thrillers, which he is primarily known for. Baldacci is the author of more than 40 novels, most of which became international bestsellers. Several have also been adapted for film. His first book, Absolute Power (1996), was adapted into a film starring Clint Eastwood. Baldacci has also penned multiple young adult novels, including the dystopian Vega Jane fantasy series.

Wish You Well is set in the Virginia mountains where Baldacci’s family originated, and the plot draws heavily on the recollections of the author’s mother and grandmother. The book was made into a movie starring Ellen Burstyn in 2013. Given the story’s emphasis on the power of the written word, it also spurred Baldacci to establish the nonprofit Wish You Well Foundation to promote literacy in America.

The story takes place in 1940s New York and the mountains of southwestern Virginia. It is told using limited third-person narration that generally follows the experiences of 12-year-old Lou, but occasionally expresses the perspectives of several other characters in her immediate circle.

The plot involves a family tragedy that changes the lives of two children forever. When the Cardinal family goes for a picnic in the country, a car accident kills the father, Jack, and renders the mother, Amanda, catatonic. 12-year-old Lou and her seven-year-old brother, Oz, are sent to live with their great grandmother in rural Virginia. In telling the story of the children’s first year in the mountains, the book explores the themes of defining family, the importance of belief, and the real value of the land.

Plot Summary

Jack Cardinal is a critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful author who has received a lucrative job offer to become a screenwriter in Hollywood. His wife Amanda tries to persuade him to turn down the job and move back to the mountains of Virginia, where he grew up. While the couple argues distractedly during a car trip, Jack swerves to avoid a pedestrian and dies in the ensuing accident. Amanda lapses into a state of catatonia from the shock, leaving her 12-year-old daughter Lou and seven-year-old son Oz with no immediate family. Lou decides that she and Oz should go to live with their great grandmother Louisa in the mountains. Louisa raised Jack after his own family split apart, and she is the children’s only surviving kin.

The rural backwardness of the mountains, or “high rock,” as the area is called, takes the children by surprise. As transplanted New Yorkers, they have difficulty adapting to the physical hardships of life on a farm and the ways of the local people. Lou despairs that her mother will ever recover and mocks Oz for his continued hope.

A local lawyer named Cotton and an orphaned boy named Diamond befriend the children. Louisa tries to safeguard her descendants as best she can, despite her advanced age and the hardscrabble life of managing a mountain farm. In the process, she imparts a love of the land to Lou and Oz. Diamond shows the newcomers a magic wishing well and says it will grant any wish so long as the wisher gives up his or her most cherished possession.

The peaceful life on the mountain farm is shattered when natural gas is discovered on the property, and a powerful company tries to buy the homestead over Louisa’s objections. Underhanded tactics to coerce the old woman to sell result in Louisa suffering a stroke, and the children are nearly sent to an orphanage. Cotton loses the hearing to declare Louisa incompetent, but Louisa dies before the judgement is placed. Cotton despairs, but at the last moment, Lou and Oz walk into the courtroom with Amanda, who has made a full recovery. Amanda marries Cotton, Lou moves away and becomes a famous author, and Oz plays for the New York Yankees. Lou moves back to the mountains in her old age.

All page number citations are taken from the Kindle edition of this book (October 2000).