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Zara Hawthorne-Calligaris
Nan—whose real name is Pearl O’Day—is Tobias Hawthorne’s mother-in-law, the mother of Tobias’s wife Alice, an “ancient” and cantankerous woman who describes herself as “older than dirt and twice as mean.” Tobias leaves her $100,000 per year in his will. When Nan was a young woman, she was an excellent piano player until her jealous, abusive husband broke her fingers. She strongly implies to Avery that after her husband broke her fingers, she murdered him and made it look like an accident. Near the novel’s end, she shows Avery a picture of her grandson Toby, Tobias’s long-lost and presumed dead son. This leads Avery to the revelation that Toby is alive and that he is, in fact, her houseless friend Harry.
Nan Quotes in The Inheritance Games
The The Inheritance Games quotes below are all either spoken by Nan or refer to Nan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapters 61–70 Quotes
“Do you play?” I asked.
Nan harrumphed. “I did when I was young. Got a bit too much attention for it, and my husband broke my fingers, put an end to that.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nan Character Timeline in The Inheritance Games
The timeline below shows where the character Nan appears in The Inheritance Games. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapters 1–10
...Hawthorne (presumably Nash), and an ancient woman whom Xander introduces to Avery and Libby as Nan. When Libby asks Nan whether Tobias was Nan’s son, Nan explains that he was her...
(full context)
...his head of security John Oren, $100,000 per year and his late wife’s jewelry to Nan, and $50,000 each plus money to cover all their debts to Zara and Skye. In...
(full context)
...grandsons, half a million to his servants, $100,000 to Zara and Skye, and money for Nan. It doesn’t add up. Then the lawyers announce that Tobias left the rest to Avery.
(full context)
Chapters 51–60
...she finds Libby in a corner, Nash protectively near her. Zara, Zara’s husband, Xander, and Nan are scattered through the rest of the room. Thea walks up behind Avery, murmurs that...
(full context)
Chapters 61–70
...she suppresses the wish. Wandering toward the sound of music, she enters a room where Nan sits at a self-playing piano. After the music stops, Avery asks whether Nan is a...
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Nash enters the room, and Nan leaves. When Nash asks whether Avery told Libby that Avery was skipping school, Avery asks...
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Chapters 81–Epilogue
...family a luxurious trip to Australia. Then she goes to find Libby, who is with Nan in the music room listening to the self-playing piano. Libby, seeing that Avery looks upset,...
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...Avery says that she knows Toby—she plays chess with him—and thinks the name “Harry.” When Nan says that’s impossible because Toby is dead, Jameson asks whether Avery is “certain.” She takes...
(full context)
