If Only It Were True is French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 author Marc Levy

Marc Levy

Marc Levy is a French novelist.Levy was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. At the age of 18, he joined the French Red Cross where he spent six years. In parallel, he studied management and computers at Paris-Dauphine University.In 1983, he created a company specializing in computer...

's first novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

, released in 1999. It was translated into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in 2000 and was adapted into the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film Just Like Heaven in 2005. A 2006 Bollywood

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

 movie named I See You

I See You

I See You is a Bollywood movie, released on 12 November 2006. It is produced by Arjun Rampal and his wife Mehr Jesia through their production company Chasing Ganesha Films and directed by Vivek Agrawal. Its tag line is You find love in the strangest places. The movie was shot entirely in London,...

is also an adaptation of this book. A Malayalam film Vismayathumbathu

Vismayathumbathu

Vismayathumbathu is a 2004 release Malayalam film directed by Fazil. It stars Mohanlal, Mukesh and Nayantara in lead roles. Mohanlal plays the role of a person who has the Sixth Sense power while Nayantara does the role of a wandering soul who get associated with Mohanlal.-Cast:* Mohanlal .......

with a similar theme was released in 2004. The inspiration of which may be this novel.

Introduction

'If Only it Were True' is a story set against the backdrop of San Francisco. 'If Only it Were True' tells the story of Lauren Kline, a young, pretty, medical resident

Residency (medicine)

Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...

, and Arthur, the man who rented her old apartment. The story revolves around these two central characters.

This book actually starts with the following opening sentence: "Le petit réveil posé sur la table de nuit en bois clair venait de sonner" (The small alarm clock resting on the light wooden night table began to ring). Reference: Marc Lévy, "Et si c'était vrai...", Edition Robert Laffont, S.A., Paris 2000.

Plot summary

Lauren Kline is a pretty, young, medical resident, completely devoted to her work in the Emergency Room of San Francisco Memorial Hospital. She worked round the clock dealing with patients until she got into a serious auto accident. As a result of the accident, Lauren went into a coma. She "woke" to awareness outside of her still comatose body, and was frustrated that she could not communicate with anyone. After a while, she chose to spend most of her time at her old apartment, where she is discovered by Arthur, the man who took over renting the place. Only he can see, hear or touch her. After some initial disbelief on his part, they fall in love.

Meaning

The novel is about the importance of the human soul. At a certain point of his life, Arthur thought his soul was lost. The moment that he is able to feel love again, he also finds the power to face his past (which isn't pretty).

After the body was returned to the hospital, Arthur and Lauren realized that their time together is ending. This is when they grasp the concept of carpe diem. They spent every possible second together, making the most out of every shared moment.

In 2005, the sequel to If Only It Were True was published, entitled Vous Revoir

Vous revoir

Vous revoir is the name of a romantic novel by Marc Levy. It is meant to serve as a sequel to his first novel Et si c'était vrai....- Plot summary :...

. No official English translation has been published yet.