Diane Setterfield — The Thirteenth Tale

Orion Publishing 2006 Paperback, 416pp. 'Tell me the truth'. It is a simple request, but one that shakes the reclusive and enigmatic novelist, Vida Winter, to her very core. For has she not spent the past six decades writing fictional lives that have not only brought her fame and fortune but kept her violent and tragic past secret? Now old and ailing Vida Winter cannot escape her own history, no matter how many stories she weaves. 'Tell me the truth'. These words from the past echo in the heat of young biographer Margaret Lea, for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who love her most, remains an ever-present pain. With a letter that finally promises to reveal the long-kept secrets of her life, Vida Winter invites Margaret on a journey into the past. Vida's tale is one of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family: the beautiful and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins, Adeline and Emmeline. In succumbing to Vida's storytelling, Margaret finds that it sheds a troubling light on her own life. Both women confront the ghosts that have haunted them and both become, finally, transformed by the truth. Spine creased and sunned; cover rubbed. (ISBN: 9780752875743). Good.