Nicole Seitz - Author of A Hundred Years of Happiness, Trouble the Water, and The Spirit of Sweetgrass

Nominated for the
2009 SIBA Book Award!
(by Southeastern Independent Booksellers and their customers as the best in Southern Literature for the year.)

Selected as a Summer Reading Pick on CBN.com

What people are saying

This beautifully written, imaginative story of love and redemption is the must-read book of the year. The ending is so surprising and powerful that it will linger long after the last page is turned.

— Cassandra King, best-selling author of The Sunday Wife

Nicole Seitz takes the loose threads of her character's lives and ties them together in a vibrant pattern of love, forgiveness and truth. In words that resonate with emotion, Seitz writes of things that are only understood with the heart. Seitz knows there is something more and she writes with wisdom in this spiritual fable.

— Patti Callahan Henry, best-selling author of The Art of Keeping Secrets and When the Light Breaks

With lyrical writing, Nicole Seitz weaves a story of love, loss and redemption in A Hundred Years Of Happiness. The result is both thought-provoking and heart-warming. Fans of this Low Country writer are guaranteed another great reading experience.

A Hundred Years of Happiness is a poignant glance at the tender bonds of family and the power the past holds over us all. Ms. Seitz uses a delicate touch and vivid imagery to paint her multi-faceted characters who come from two different worlds, but who resemble each other when viewed from the heart.

This is a lovely book about an era we don't normally examine too closely, but Ms. Seitz's careful eye and warm prose help the reader to embrace a lost hero, and perhaps accept an imperfect past.

— Karen White, author of The Memory of Water and The House on Tradd Street

A Hundred Years of Happiness is a fast-paced, intriguing story that will draw you in quickly and leave you full of hope.

—Katie Crouch, author of Girls in Trucks

A Hundred Years of Happiness takes readers on a journey through the color of the low-country, to the unspoken pains of war, to the unique way each heart heals. A novel that will remind each reader of the power of our own stories and how the past so often determines the future. Once again, Nicole has made us search our deep places with humor and heart.

— Denise Hildreth, author of The Will of Wisteria and Flies on the Butter

A Hundred Years of Happiness is a courageous novel that explores the pain and repercussions of the Viet Nam War on two families today. Nicole Seitz writes with keen insight and compassion as the past collides with the present, and her characters must face the choices they made nearly a lifetime ago.

— Maryann McFadden, author of The Richest Season

From Christian Library Journal
"The novel is a strong tribute to those who fought in the Vietnam war, who committed and witnessed terrible atrocities, and then returned home–unthanked–to jeers and prejudice....[a] story full of patriotism, humility, respect, and thankfulness for our military veterans." Read full review.

– Reviewed by Sherri Beeler, Christian Library Journal, October December 2009 issue, p 46

From ChristianBookPreviews.com
"Seitz writes with a soft clarity that makes heart-rendering situations somehow beautiful. The concept of A Hundred Years of Happiness is also one of the most interesting that I have encountered among war fiction in many years. The way characters in this novel face the pain and love of the past serves as a good example to readers....A Hundred Years of Happiness isn’t just a book for those interested in the intricacies war. It tackles the fear a woman has of meeting a lover from her husband’s past, the importance of support groups, cultural norms, and how sometimes it’s only by stepping through the veil of pain that we encounter peace." Read the full review.

– Reviewed byLauren Richwine, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

From Crossmap Columns
“A Hundred Years of Happiness” is a treasure…a truly lovely book! Rich characters, down to earth dialogue, and a meaningful storyline make it the perfect summer read. Read the full review.

— Paula Friedrichsen, author of The Man You Always Wanted is The One You Already Have

From Jen's Jewels
Beautifully written with an unforeseen ending, this book will leave its imprint on your heart and soul. Without a doubt, it is a must-read novel for May.

— Jennifer Vido

From Faithfulreader.com
A young mother of two small boys finds herself fitting in marvelously with a group of older women who dub themselves the Water Lilies, a synchronized swim team that meets in her parents' pool. Katherine Ann, better known as Katie-bug to her nearest and dearest, is sort of surprised that since she retired from being a malpractice lawyer to raise her two young sons, she so easily meshes with these elderly women (one of whom is her perfectionist and beautiful mother, Betty-Jo Porter).

Workouts take place in the mornings in preparation for a show that will display all the graceful moves this small group of genteel southern ladies can offer. Katie-bug, though appreciative of the womanly interactions she's on the receiving end of, still feels out of sorts. Her dad, a Vietnam veteran, has never been "easy" to get close to, and Katie-bug wonders just what sort of secrets he holds close to his chest that keeps him drinking so much and so emotionally distant. When the opportunity arises, Katie-bug invites him to a pricey ceremonial evening where veterans are honored and can meet/greet one another. Little does Katie realize what internal awakenings this will stir in him and how drastically all their lives will change.

Nearby, another young adult woman, Lisa --- daughter to Doan Vien, a Vietnamese immigrant --- is wrestling with her own life questions. She silently wonders about her past, the father she never knew, questions about her mother's romance, and why she feels so untethered. When she accidentally breaks the only photo of her father and reads his name, she suddenly has a mission. She must locate and meet this man, and she does. But the occasion is definitely not what Lisa envisions. Instead of happy reunions and loving words, she feels more rejected than ever.

Interestingly, both Katie-bug and Lisa have the inner grit to keep pressing past their worries and fears and get to the truth of the matter. Between the two of them, there is a mutual bond that was formed years earlier in Vietnam. Seemingly all the women involved will find a way to forge out the truth. Through a small measure of manipulation and subterfuge, they rally their forces, and the annual Water Lily presentation takes a wildly different turn than ever before. Courage and fear, truth and lies, present and past, all meet one another face to face. Not a single participant can dodge the memories or their affects (nor would they choose to). Real healing is possible only when the ghosts that have lingered so long have been banished.

Author Nicole Seitz offers her fans a lovely story, welcoming and charming from beginning to end. Readers will laugh and cry right along with these fictional characters, recognizing from one heart to the next that we're all the same underneath.

— Reviewed by Michele Howe, author of STILL GOING IT ALONE: Mothering with Faith and Finesse, and Single Parenting Columnist for www.Bizymoms.com

From The VVA Veteran
Nicole Seitz’s A Hundred Years of Happiness...is set in present-day South Carolina and revolves around a woman whose father is a Vietnam veteran with serious emotional issues and an Amerasian woman working as a cook in a nearby town. There’s also a measure of magical realism in that another character is the ghost of a dead American soldier who comes to life in the form of a koi fish.

From Star-News (Wilmington, NC)
"....her gifts as a storyteller are undeniable."
Read full review.

— Reviewed by book editor Ben Steelman, Star-News

From Jackie K. Cooper
"Nicole Seitz is not only a good writer, she is a brave writer."
Read full review.

From Booklist
John Porter’s horrific memories of his service in the Vietnam War have been dormant for nearly 40 years But a brief encounter with an old enemy reopens old wounds. Now that he’s displaying alarming signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, his daughter Katie vows to bring her father peace. But a weekend trip to a veterans ceremony intended to bring closure instead unknowingly sparks a chain of events that lead John and Katie to a Vietnamese woman named Doan Vien who befriended John during the war. Doan Vien and her daughter Lisa Le disclose long-held secrets that threaten to unravel both families. This intricate story unfolds slowly from Katie and Lisa’s points of view, but it is also interspersed with John’s disturbing memories. Cleverly Seitz offers only the tiniest of clues until finally serving up the final resolution. A heartbreaking tale that sheds light on love, friendship, and faith powerful enough to endure the atrocities of war.

— Reviewed by Annie McCormick, Booklist

From Fresh Fiction
I loved this story! Nicole Seitz writes an extremely nostalgic and heartrending story of the suffering and sacrifices of the servicemen serving in Vietnam. She has very cleverly portrayed the soul-searching struggle in each of her characters in their individual pain in confronting the past. This will be a beautiful story remembered for years to come. I look forward to more of Ms. Seitz's brilliant writing.

— Reviewed by Kay Quintin, 2/6/2009

From Romantic Times Book Reviews
A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS
Nicole Seitz
****4 stars

Seitz uses her gift of storytelling to share the internal lives of Vietnam veterans and their loved ones as they search for the truth that will free them from the curse of war. Once the four main characters are fully developed you will be hooked and fully empathize with them. Don’t put this book down until you reach the final resolution; it has a surprise ending.

— Lindy J. Swanson, Romantic Times Book Reviews, March 2009

From Publishers Weekly
A Hundred Years of Happiness Nicole Seitz.
Thomas Nelson, $14.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59554-502-2

Seitz (The Spirit of Sweetgrass) focuses on two families irrevocably changed by the Vietnam War in her latest Lowcountry saga. All Lisa Le knows of her father is that he was an American soldier who died in Vietnam, before Lisa's Vietnamese mother and uncle moved to America, and that her mother continues to mourn him in their Georgetown, S.C., home. John Porter, of Charleston, is a veteran haunted by his past. His daughter, happily married Katherine, hopes to help by taking him to a veterans' event, but instead sets in motion a chain of events that will bring the two families crashing together. Seitz deftly shifts perspective among Lisa, Katherine, John and a koi fish in Vietnam who was once an American soldier named Ernest, giving her familiar themes—posttraumatic stress disorder, adjusting to civilian life, survivor's guilt, smalltown Southern living, aging, the quest to belong—sensitive and original treatment. For anyone touched by war, this tale of life after wartime should resonate strongly. (Mar.)

— Publishers Weekly, 12/15/2008

From Charleston Magazine
A Hundred Years of Happiness, by Nicole Seitz ($15, Thomas Nelson, March 2009)

Lowcountry native Nicole Seitz's third novel, A Hundred Years of Happiness, could have stayed within the comfortable boundaries of a family drama with a Charleston backdrop. Instead, and to her great credit, Seitz surprises with fresh characters that add cultural and generational depth to the story. Foremost among these is Georgetown fry cook Lisa Le, who escaped Vietnam with her mother for a better life in America. Le's search for a sense of belonging in small town South Carolina provides the riskiest and best work Seitz has offered to date. While the Charleston-based portion of the narrative owes much to Conroy and others, A Hundred Years of Happiness is redeemed by unexpected voices from the other side of the world.