Elena catches a glimpse of her friend Jeanie Roper in a New Zealand art gallery. It is twenty-three years since Jeanie suddenly disappeared. They had been close when Jeanie lived in Samoa with her bullying husband and gentle father. But why is Jeanie hiding her identity? Elena is intrigued to discover Jeanie has a daughter who is unaware of her Samoan ancestry. There are family secrets here — possibly dangerous ones — that Elena is determined to uncover. Inheritance is a novel of contrasts: the tropical beauty and exuberance of Samoa in the 1960s; and the dark violence that arises from the conflict between truthfulness and love.
This tender and amusing novel is set in the nineties, with the Springbok tour still a recent memory, and as the country debates whether to change its voting system. Letter-writing is about to give way to email but elderly Grace will resist the trend. Through letters and stories, we learn of her friendships, the interactions of the argumentative bowling club, her growing attraction to and relationship with Max, and the jealousy this engenders in her closest friend, Mildred. As the story unfolds, Grace faces new challenges: the problems of younger people invade her solitary life. Grace touches the lives of many with her warmth, her feistiness, her intelligence and her frailty.
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