The Heiress (novel)

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The heiress (original title: Sycamore Row ) is a novel by the American author John Grisham , which was published in 2013 at Doubleday , New York . The German translation by Kristiana Dorn-Ruhl, Bea Reiter and Imke Walsh-Araya was first published in 2014 by Heyne , Munich . The book is set in 1988 and is a direct sequel to Grisham's first novel The Jury . Like this one, it has the lawyer Jake Brigance as the main character.

action

In the small town of Clanton, Mississippi , three years after the spectacular events surrounding the trial of Carl Lee Hailey , a man is said to meet his boss Seth Hubbard on a Sunday at two o'clock in the afternoon over a plane tree on his property. There he discovers that Seth Hubbard hanged himself from the plane tree because his terminal lung cancer was causing him too much pain. Before his death, Seth Hubbard left very precise instructions for his funeral.

Meanwhile, the life of Jake Brigance, who represented Carl Lee Hailey in his murder trial, is still marked by the aftermath of that trial. At that time, his extensively renovated historic house was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan - who wanted to intimidate him - along with his dog. Insufficiently insured, he finds himself in a legal dispute with his insurance company about adequate compensation for his house. The professional success he had hoped for after his spectacular victory did not materialize. Shortly after Hubbard's death, Brigance received a letter from him that contained a handwritten will revoking a previously written will that all of his possessions were to be bequeathed to his daughter, son, and grandchildren.

In his New Testament, Hubbard states that his children should go completely empty-handed; He leaves five percent to his church and five percent to his long-lost brother, if he is still alive. He wants to leave the remaining 90 percent of his fortune, worth over 20 million dollars, to his colored housekeeper Lettie Lang. Further instructions in his letter to Brigance dictate that the will should not be made public until after his funeral, so that his children - with whom he had a tense relationship - are forced to act out grief before they find out that they ultimately get nothing.

Hubbard specifically requests Jake to use whatever means possible to defend the will in court against his greedy children, who will of course challenge the legality of the New Testament. He writes that he chose Jake because of his accomplishments in the Hailey Trial.

Indeed, Hubbard's children are soon filing lawsuits against the New Testament, citing their father's incapacity at the time the will was drafted. After a tough and eventful process full of surprising twists and turns, Jake already sees the process lost when it comes to the sensational statement by Seth Hubbard's brother Ancil, who explains why Hubbard left the money to Lettie Lang and what the plane tree is all about, on which Hubbard hanged himself:

In the 1930s, Ancil and Seth's father was involved in the lynching of Lettie Lang's grandfather - who was hung by the mob on this plane tree - which Ancil and Seth secretly observed. As a result, Lettie Lang's grandmother was missing a supplier. In her financial need, she sold the Lang family's property to the father of Ancil and Seth at a very low price. In return, the latter promised her that the family could continue to live on the property. But the day after the sale, the Lang family was evicted from the property with the help of the local sheriff . The Lang family had fallen into ruin.

Seth Hubbard later used the property his father had bought several times as a mortgage to build up his considerable fortune with a sawing company. He knew that part of his success was due to that mortgage. The bequest to Lettie Lang was for him reparation for his father's deeds.

According to Ancil Hubbard, the twelve jurors unanimously dismiss the case. However, an appeal process seems very likely, which is why Judge Reuben Atlee proposes a reasonable settlement to the parties. In fact, both parties are positive about the latter. It seems very likely that they will accept the judge's suggestion.

reception

The book was well received by the readers; it was at number one on the New York Times bestseller list . In Germany, it entered the Spiegel bestseller list at number 11. The reviews were also mostly positive; Charlie Rubin describes Grisham's work in the New York Times Book Review as "one of his finest" ("one of his best"). John O'Connell writes in a review for the Guardian that the book is a "solid justice thriller" that has a lot to say about deeply ingrained prejudices, but disappoints compared to its predecessor - The Plot . The main problem of The Heiress is the main character Jack Brigance, who is too flawless.

The book was also well received by critics in German-speaking countries. In a review in his mission Druckfrisch called Denis Scheck "thoughtfully designed, masterfully told Thriller" it as and thought how Grisham had "interweaves the trauma of the American South with a thrilling courtroom thriller", was "large class". The website of Focus praises the fact that the drawing of the characters down to the secondary characters is as convincing as is usual for Grisham. Only the main character Jack Brigance was "a bit too selfless, modest and free from mistakes to be realistic". With the book, which is about racism, the dispute between the generations, resentment and historical guilt, Grisham shows that he is "still an unsurpassed master even 25 years after the publication of 'The Jury'".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bestsellers, January 05, 2014. In: nytimes.com. January 5, 2014, accessed September 25, 2015 .
  2. ↑ John Grisham enters the SPIEGEL bestseller list with “The Heiress”. In: buchreport.de. March 7, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ A Time to Die. In: nytimes.com. November 8, 2013, accessed September 25, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Sycamore Row by John Grisham - review. In: theguardian.com. August 30, 2013, accessed September 25, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Denis Scheck comments on the top ten. In: daserste.de. May 6, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015 .
  6. ↑ In “The Heiress”, John Grisham is at his best. In: focus.de. March 4, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015 .