The Inheritance of Beauty

By Nicole Seitz

Beauty, like truth, is enduring. But only one can set you free. The Inheritance of Beauty is a rich and enchanting story about 92-year-old George, forced to watch his beloved wife Maggie fade from Alzheimer’s—until a stranger arrives at their nursing home to bring the tragic past crashing back.

Maggie Black came of age in the lush, fragrant lowcountry of South Carolina—spending her days with her beloved brother and the childhood sweetheart she would grow up to marry. But when a stranger arrived on the train one summer, Maggie couldn’t imagine the evil he would bring with him. And though she escaped with her life, the ramifications of that fateful summer would alter all of their lives forever.

Now, some eighty years later, Maggie and her husband George are spending their remaining days in a nursing home, helpless as age slowly robs Maggie of her ability to communicate. When a mysterious package arrives, followed closely by a stranger whose identity haunts them, Maggie and George are hemmed in by a history they’d rather forget.

As the truth reveals itself, George knows he must face the past and its lifetime of repercussions. It’s the only way to free himself and his precious wife—if it’s not too late. But George isn't sure how many lives were affected by the stranger in Levy . . . or why life must come full-circle now when he's running out of time

• Haunting southern fiction told through alternating points of view in the present and 1929
• Includes discussion questions for book clubs
• Also by Nicole Seitz: Saving Cicadas, A Hundred Years of Happiness, and Trouble the Water

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Feb 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781401685461

Reviews for The Inheritance of Beauty

[brandyhei · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Nicole Seitz brand of southern magic realism, and you'll almost always captivate me with a story layered between past and present. The Inheritance of Beauty delivers on all counts.

[quiltinfun06 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well Nicole Seitz has done it again and written a novel that I absolutely love. The Inheritance of Beauty is about lifetime friends who are facing aging and death but with secrets. George and Magnolia are living in a nursing home. She is wheelchair bound and unable to speak; he is ill but fighting still to protect Magnolia his wife and the love of his life. They were children together in a very small town in the South, Levy. Magnolia and her brother Ash watch the train pull in one day. The train that brings the moustached stranger into Levy and their lives. The stranger the brings secrets, fear and destruction.Now at the end of his life, George receives two packages from NY. One a beautiful picture of his young wife and the other letters explaining where the picture has been and why.The letters lead George back to Levy where he must face his demons and "confess" in order to carry out the last days of his life.From the first word to the last, the story of George and Magnolia is heartwarming and heart wrenching. Truly perfect ingredients for a fantastic story that makes you wonder what is really important in life. An absolute, must read.

[clue_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A poorly managed mystery with a plot too complicated for this author to bring the threads together in the end.

[melaniehope · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

George Jacobs and his childhood sweetheart Maggie, along with her brother Ash, were just kids living in small-town Levy, SC, when the train brought a magician and Joe Stackhouse into town. What happens next changes all of their lives forever. Eighty years later, George and Maggie are spending their remaining days in a nursing home. After a mysterious package arrives, followed by a new resident at the nursing home whose identity haunts them, Maggie and George are forced to remember a past they'd rather forget.The story was bittersweet with mix of suspense and even humor. It's told from the point of view of Maggie, George and Annie. Later on, we hear Ash's point of view through old letters written by him. The story goes back and forth between the year 1929 and the present. There is a large group of characters, but the short excerpts told by each one is easy to follow and leaves you wanting to find out more. I so enjoy books that have different characters narrating each chapter. None of the characters are perfect, each have a mixture of good and bad in them and decisions they have suffered over. I was riveted and anxious to find out what tragic event happened to these characters eighty years ago. This book encourages you to speak the truth and believe in miracles. Guilt, grief and redemption are some themes in this tale.