"The Thirteenth Tale" - Diane Setterfield

Vida Winter, renowned author, has spent most of her life hiding one story....the story of her life. Many biographers have had the pleasure of hearing some tale or another. Each as imaginative as the next. Needless to say young biographer, Margaret Lea, is a bit skeptical when she receives a letter from Miss Winter requesting that she record her "true" tale.

"Once upon a time there were twins..."

So begins the tale of a crazed love, a bond between sisters, a lonely ghost (is there a different kind?), and the tragedy of losing everything. A story in which Margaret not only learns about Miss Winter, but also about herself. I was so immersed in the story that I was caught unprepared for the ending. I was following what the author wanted me to without considering the "subplot." This was really a fascinating read, and I am not a huge fan of mystery novels.

Amazon.com Review
Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.

There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:

"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."

She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."

"I am a biographer, I work with facts."

The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan