Showing across UAE cinemas this week is the much-anticipated movie based on the novel of the same name: <i>The Lucky One</i> by American author Nicholas Sparks and starring Zac Effron. As a fan of Sparks, who also wrote The Notebook (2004), Message in a Bottle (1999), Dear John (2010), I was excited to sit down for a chat with him while he was in Dubai last March. He advised I buy the book, promising that I would love it, then happily signed it. As he said during the interview: "If you pick up one of my novels, you have no idea how it's going to end - unless you take a peek at the end". And...he's right. I have just a few more pages left before I head to the nearest cinema. I will not peek! If you missed the interview it is