The Inheritance
A Novel
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- ¥1,100
Publisher Description
“Moving… This engrossing and hopeful story will hold readers from start to finish.”—Publishers Weekly
“Family secrets, complex characters and a glorious setting make The Inheritance a rich, compelling read...JoAnn Ross at her best!” —Sherryl Woods, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sweet Magnolias series
With a dramatic wartime love story woven through, JoAnn Ross's brilliant new novel is a gorgeous generational saga about the rivalry, history and loyalty that bond sisters together
When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard—and for a family they didn’t ask for.
After a successful career as a child TV star, Tess is, for the first time, suffering from a serious identity crisis, and grieving for the absent father she’s resented all her life.
Charlotte, brought up to be a proper Southern wife, gave up her own career to support her husband's political ambitions. On the worst day of her life, she discovers her beloved father has died, she has two sisters she never knew about and her husband has fallen in love with another woman.
Natalie, daughter of Jack’s longtime mistress, has always known about her half sisters, and has dreaded the day when Tess and Charlotte find out she’s the daughter their father kept.
As the sisters reluctantly gather at the vineyard, they’re soon enchanted by the Swann family matriarch and namesake of Maison de Madeleine wines, whose stories of bravery in WWII France and love for a wounded American soldier will reveal the family legacy they've each inherited and change the course of all their lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ross's moving latest (after Summer on Mirror Lake) brings together a trio of estranged half-sisters and their 90-something grandmother, a French war bride. After conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies of cancer, his daughters Tess Swann, Charlotte Swann Aldredge, and Natalie Seurat Swann are summoned to Aberdeen, Ore., for the reading of his will. Tess is a well-known writer and actress; Charlotte, an unhappily married home designer, and Natalie a photographer. To their surprise, the sisters have inherited Chateau de Madeleine, the Oregon winery their grandfather built for his French war bride, Madeleine. Handsome, widowed vintner Gideon Byrne, whom Jackson had hired to run the winery, shares in the surprise. Later, he becomes friendly with Tess, as they each open up about their respective struggles with single parenting and writing. The terms of the will are that the sisters must stay through the next harvest to inherit the business—and soon they develop the bonds of a family. Ross convincingly distinguishes each of the sisters, as well as their paternal grandmother, Madeleine, a Resistance fighter in WWII France whose story demonstrates who her granddaughters inherited strength from, and who still lives at the winery. This engrossing and hopeful story will hold readers from start to finish.
