|
by: Diane Setterfield
List Price: $49.95Amazon.com's Price: $35.47 You Save: $14.48 (29%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780743564175
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 0743564170
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
Number Of Items: 14
Publication Date: September 12, 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Sales Rank: 63371
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.
All children mythologize their birth. . . . So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.
Disinterring the life she meant to bury for good, Vida mesmerizes Margaret with the power of her storytelling. Hers is a tale of gothic strangeness, featuring the Angelfield family -- including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline -- a ghost, a governess, and a devastating fire. Struck by a curious parallel between their stories, Margaret demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them.
The Thirteenth Tale is a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter, and in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Raising the bar
Every once in a while, I'll read a book that raises the bar for me and inspires me to want to be a better writer, either because of the prose or the premise. Books that come to mind are Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Robert Cormier's Fade, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist, Jodi Picoult's Second Glance, and now, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.
This contemporary gothic novel alternates narrators between the reliable ... Read More
Rating: - a great story ABOUT storytelling
It's hard to categorize this book. Is it a mystery? Yes, in a way it's a mystery. The Thirteenth Tale is ALSO a ghost story. But not a ghost story about ghouls and goblins and specters. It's a story about ghosts of the past, loss, regrets and tales left unfinished.
Margaret Lea, a lover of books and somewhat of a writer herself is asked to write the true life story of one of England's most beloved and reclusive writers, Vida Winter. People adore her books but know little about the author ... Read More
Rating:  - A good mystery
Margaret is a biographer who works in her father's bookshop. She loves all things books and reads constantly. But she isn't one for popular fiction. However, when she is contacted by a famous author who wants Margaret to write her biography, Margaret is intrigued. The author, Vida Winter, is one of the most popular fiction writers of her time and Margaret has never read any of her work. She settles down to read Ms. Winter's collection of short stories which is supposed to consist of 13 tales. However ... Read More
Rating: - The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield's novel is based on the story Vida Winter, a well-renowned author in England. Her dark and tormented past led her to finally divulge her story to Margaret Lea, a quiet, passionate librarian. Even though both women seem to be complete opposites, the readers discover that they both suffer from separation from family and the death of a twin which gives them more in common than they expected.
The Thirteenth Tale is a story about a dysfunctional family, where the birth of a girl ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent
This is an excellent book. It started off a bit slow but really picked up speed. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book.
|
