num_pages: 6
description: The Inaugural Selection of Barnes Noble Recommends/bbrDiane Setterfield's remarkable first novel -- a tale of ghostly legacies, descended from iJane Eyre/i -- begins like a reader's a bookseller's daughter returns to the shop one night to discover a letter from England's best-loved writer, a woman whose life is shrouded in rumor and legend. Reading the strange missive from the famous Vida Winter, Margaret Lea is puzzled by its invitation to discover the truth about the author's mystifying past. Later that evening, unable to sleep, Margaret returns to the shop from her bedroom upstairs in search of something to read. Passing over her old favorites -- iThe Woman in White, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre/i -- she can't resist the temptation of the rarest of her correspondent's books, iThirteen Tales of Change and Desperation,/i the recalled first edition of a book that contained only twelve stories. Falling under Vida Winter's spell for the first time, Margaret reads it straight through. Not long afterward she is standing in the opulent library of Miss Winter's Yorkshire home, transported by the romance of books into a mysterious tale of her own.brbrOnly five short chapters into Setterfield's deft, enthralling narrative, her readers too have been they've inhaled the dusty scent of Lea's Antiquarian Bookshop, shared the sense of adventurous comfort Margaret absorbs from her late-night reading, and been seduced by the glamorous enigma of Vida Winter. Yet iThe Thirteenth Tale/i has just begun. Commissioned by Miss Winter to compose her unvarnished biography, Margaret is soon swept up in the tragic history she must unravel -- a story stranger and more haunting than any the celebrated author has ever penned, encompassing a grand house, a beautiful yet doomed family, passion, madness, ghosts, and a secret that holds readers spellbound until the very end. Richly atmospheric and deeply satisfying, Setterfield's debut revives in all their glory the traditions of gothic and romantic suspense exemplified by the works of Wilkie Collins, the Bront
language: English
title: The Thirteenth Tale
titlecomplete: The Thirteenth Tale
characters: Vida Winter, Adeline March, Aurelius Love, Emmeline March, Margaret Lea
genres: Fiction, Historical, Books About Books, Gothic, Mystery, Book Club, Mystery Thriller, Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
ratings_count: 308417
places: Angelfield
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Dilys Award, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: ALA Alex Award, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: The Quill Award
category: Debut Author of the year
publisher: Orion