I am looking for a book that my mother-in-law was reading in the late 60s early 70s. It is a book based in San Francisco.
From what she remembers it is a story about a mother or a family member like a dad who dies. The daughters need to split up the estate.
They start in her house on the top floor.They are assigned an order that they must keep the entire time. One of the daughters desperately wants the piano which is on the bottom floor. Each of them takes a turn. The daughter who wants the piano is constantly negotiating with the other two sisters. She’s making side deals with them by telling them that she’ll get this item but she’ll trade it for the piano.
My mother-in-law never read the end of the book. She went to a wedding and she left the book in the hotel. So she never found out what happened at the end and if the daughter was successful in getting the piano.
There’s a novel called “the Grab” by Maria Katzenbach, published in 1978, with a very similar storyline, except that it’s set in Washington DC, not San Francisco, and the object in contention is the mother’s portrait, not a piano. Could your mother have misremembered some details since it’s been so long? “The grab” is the sisters’ family’s traditional way of dividing property- they’re upper crust and socially prominent and own many antiques and art objects.
It’s a bit unlikely. We are from San Francisco you you tend to remember books that are based in your hometown.
I got my mother-in-law “The Grab”. As soon as she got it she said the cover looked familiar but then insisted it was set in San Francisco.
She read the book and got back to me today that this WAS the book she was looking for!
Thank you so much for your help! You figured it out!