The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane SetterfieldMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was brilliantly written. I was hooked from the first word. I can't even form words to describe the emotion and depth that this book took me through.
Pub. Date: October 2007
Synopsis: A compelling emotional mystery in the timeless vein of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling.
Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.
Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject - and Vida starts to recount her tale. It is one of gothic strangeness featuring the March family; the fascinating, devious and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline.
Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida's storytelling. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience.
Recommended Reading:
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
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