The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale. Diana Setterfield. Atria Books. September 12, 2006. 406 pages (Source: Purchased from BetterWorldBooks.com)

First sentences:  It was November.  Although it was not yet late, the sky was dark when I turned into Laundress Passage.

Plot: All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's colletion of stories, which are as famous for th myster of the missing thirteenth tale as they ae for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself - all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret.  Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life.  She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain.  Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized.  It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity.  She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children.  Diana Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfifed back upon the shore of your everyday life.

My thoughts:  I don't know where to begin with this one.  This is an amazing author.  She kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!  Once I thought I had the mystery solved but I was wrong.  I like that in a good story.

I struggle with reviews on how much to tell without spoiling it for a potential reader.  Margret is what I would consider an introvert.  She helps her father in his book store, she reads, and writes a few books.  She is called upon by Ms. Winter to write the correct version of her life because she has told many false stories over the years.  Come to find out her story isn't one she would have wanted known while she still had lots of life to live.

While listing to Ms. Winter's story Margret is dealing with her own life issue of being a twin.  Her sister dying in infancy.  She feels the loss deep into her bones.  She is grieving for the other half of herself that she never new.

I will be looking for more books by Diane Setterfield!