The Gift [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Danielle Steel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994

On a June day, a young woman in a summer dress steps off a Chicago-bound bus into a small midwestern town. She doesn't intend to stay. She is just passing through. Yet her stopping here has a reason and it is part of a story that you will never forget.

The time is the 1950s, when life was simpler, people still believed in dreams, and family was, very nearly, everything. The place is a small midwestern town with a high school and a downtown, a skating pond and a movie house. And on a tree-lined street in the heartland of America, an extraordinary set of events begins to unfold. And gradually what seems serendipitous is tinged with purpose. A happy home is shattered by a child's senseless death. A loving marriage starts to unravel. And a stranger arrives a young woman who will touch many lives before she moves on. She and a young man will meet and fall in love. Their love, so innocent and full of hope, helps to restore a family's dreams. And all of their lives will be changed forever by the precious gift she leaves them.

The Gift, Danielle Steel's thirty-third best-selling work, is a magical story told with stunning simplicity and power. It reveals a relationship so moving it will take your breath away. And it tells a haunting and beautiful truth about the unpredictability and the wonder of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Steel deviates sharply from her usual romance formula in this tender if sometimes sappy story about bad things happening to good people. It's 1952, and the Whittakers are the perfect happy family. But when five-year-old Annie dies of meningitis the day after Christmas, their lives fall apart. Teenager Tommy begins frequenting a diner where he meets 16-year-old waitress Maribeth Robertson, who's pregnant and has been thrown out of her home. The two lonely adolescents slowly fall in love; Tommy offers to marry Maribeth, but she refuses, claiming that they are too young to be parents; she plans to give the child up for adoption. Meanwhile, Tommy's parents have drifted far apart, but the fear that their son may soon be a father temporarily reunites them. Eventually, the Whittakers, parents and son, help Maribeth to cope with her pregnancy and her family's rejection, while she helps them accept the death of their beloved Annie. Reading more like a novella than a full-fledged novel, the narrative has well-meaning characters, uplifting sentiments and a few moments that could make a stone weep. Nice as it is, however, her fans will no doubt crave for the day when Steel returns to her tried-and-true one-woman/two-great-loves potboilers. One million first printing; major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doub le day Book Club main selections; simultaneous Spanish edition, El Regalo, available in trade paper (
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In reviewing the last few Steel novels, Booklist has tried to make the argument that the author and her readers deserve more respect than they get. Steel does not exploit the romance genre for its racy, dark, or semipornographic underpinnings; she has taken one element of the medieval love-tale, adapted its gentle, loving, and hopeful outlook to the modern world, and produced a satisfying set of variations on her theme. The Gift is Steel to perfection. A small work, it tells the tale of two 16-year-olds whose meeting restores life to both. The death of Tommy's little sister wrecks a family's happiness. The unwanted pregnancy of Maribeth threatens to ruin her attempt to lift herself out of an anti-intellectual and sexist environment. But when the two meet, love, support, sensitivity, and some much-needed wisdom redeem the bleak circumstances of their lives and bring the story to its satisfying conclusion. Clich{‚}ed, sentimental? Maybe, but Steel believes in the goodness of her characters and here, more than ever before, shows absolute faith in a simple tale of rewarded virtue. This is the author at her best: mature, to the point, refreshed by the tale of her young lovers. Not great art, perhaps, but in its own way almost perfect. Stuart Whitwell

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1ST edition (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038531292X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385312929
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #925,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include 44 Charles Street, Legacy, Family Ties, Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching Story, August 11, 2005

By 

Raj "raj_thatsme" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift (Hardcover)

I had seen a few TV movie adaptations of Danielle Steel's novels but never got the time to reading any of her books. So I finally decide to get `The Gift', seeing that it would be a short read, just to give her books a try. I must say that I loved reading this book, and have already bought other books of hers to add to my bookshelf.

5 year old Annie Whittaker died of meningitis, the day after Christmas, leaving a bruise on the rest of the family: Tommy, her brother; Elizabeth, her mother; and John, her father. Each member of the family slowly secludes themselves from one another in their own way. What used to be a close knit family doesn't exist now. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Maribeth Robertson, a 16 year old girl who makes a mistake that would change her life. She runs away from her family and friends, and starts working in a restaurant as a waitress, where she meets Tommy. The two immediately hit it off, but there are a lot of problems standing in their way which they must face.

The story is very sweet, and we get to read how Maribeth changes the Whittakers and makes them a family again. Though the ending is a little sad, you feel touched by the story overall. Danielle Steel, famous of writing matters of the heart, does an excellent job in depicting the love between two lovers, between a mother and a daughter, and the love within the family.

Whether you are a fan of Danielle Steel or not, if you like reading romantic novels, then this book will be a perfect `gift' for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars short and sweet, May 6, 2002

By 

Mary (Okemos, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift (Mass Market Paperback)

Set in the 1950s, The Gift by Danielle Steel is a touching novel about two separate families who meet and are changed by a special gift. It begins with the story of Tommy Whittaker and his family. They have a beautiful daughter named Annie, whose love changed the family into happiness and cheer. When her senseless death arises, the family is crushed; the loving marriage starts to unravel and Tommy begins to fend for himself, going out to eat by himself and rarely talking with his parents.

Then the story switches over to a girl named Maribeth Robertson who has one meaningless experience with a boy, and ends up pregnant. Her father sends her to the nun's and tells her not to come home until she gets rid of it. When she arrives, she hates it there and decides to leave with the money her father gave her to pay the nuns. She takes the train to a city where she gets a job at a café. One day she was working, that is where the two families first intertwine.
Tommy walks in to have dinner and Maribeth waits on him, eventually Tommy comes in everyday and he and Maribeth become very close. They share personal secrets about their lives, and become each other 's need that they were looking for. Maribeth becomes very close with the Whittakers and helps to bind the family back together. When the baby arrives, it is the gift to the Whittaker family of a new baby girl and a gift to Maribeth because she knows that the baby is in good care. When Mrs. Whittaker accepts her offer of adoption it is so emotional and uplifting.
This is such a touching story that I think is aimed more at a younger audience. It is a lesson to young girls out there to be careful, and a message to the world that a kind person can change a life. I really enjoyed reading this and it is a short read definitely worth a try!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book!, April 25, 2002

By 

Theresa W (mi, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift (Mass Market Paperback)

This story is short, but you wish it were longer. However, it is it's "shortness" that gives it so much life and the reader so much enjoyment. Good book