It is not difficult to write a novel,’ wrote one novelist, ‘just slit your wrists and let them bleed over the pages.’ There is a lot of blood in this story.”

This is how Richard Paul Evans begins “The Locket.”

This labor of love is not Evans’ first. He is the best-selling author of “The Christmas Box” trilogy, which includes “The Christmas Box,” “Timepiece” and “The Letter.” All of these reached bestseller status by giving readers a two-love-stories-for-one deal.

In each of Evans’ novels, and continuing in “The Locket,” he weaves together characters from the past and present, linking their lives through one vital object.

The object on which this book is based is a locket owned by Esther Huish, a reclusive elderly woman pining for a lost love. Throughout the tale, Esther recalls memories of the locket and of Thomas, the man who gave it to her.

Each chapter of the book begins with an excerpt from Esther’s diary, and the quotes span all generations. One excerpt could also serve as the moral of this story: “How often the course of a life is changed in one pulse of a heart.”

Advice such as this is given personally by Esther each day to a young man in his 20s, Michael Keddington, who also serves as Evans’ present-day character.

After caring for his cancer-stricken mother for two years and mourning her death, Michael has nothing left. Any money he once had was spent on hospital costs, and he has no education after dropping out of college.

Needing money to pay the bills, Michael decides to get a job at the Arcadia nursing home. This is where he meets Esther and the tale of “The Locket” begins.

Through deep conversations each night, Michael and Esther become close friends and soon find that their lives and loves parallel each other in more ways than one.

Michael finds himself losing his girlfriend Faye, much like Esther lost Thomas so many years ago. Soon, his dignity, job and future education are on the line, and Esther may be the only person able to truly help him find happiness.

Evans writes of his novel, “Ultimately, it is a story of the love between generations, and the nurturing and forgiveness those relationships require.”

Though on the surface this may sound like a mushy romance, “The Locket” is sweet enough but not too sappy. Evans has a way of proving to everyone which things are truly important in life, and often those things are people.

3 1/2 stars out of five

Kelsey Foutch is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Waterloo.