Margaret Lea is a bookish, single woman, still living with her
parents in London. As a serious but minor biographer, she is
shocked when a letter arrives one day from Vida Winter. A wildly
popular author in England, Vida Winter has given many reporters her
"life story," not one of them true. She is, above all, a
storyteller. Nothing about what she has told people has been true.
Even her name has been fabricated. Now she wants Margaret to tell
her story. Her life is fast coming to an end and she does not wish
to die with her secrets.

Margaret has always preferred to read dead authors. Live ones have
never held her interest --- not until now. In her father's
antiquarian bookshop, she locates a Vida Winter volume entitled
"Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation," which she eagerly
devours, to her great surprise. But when Margaret reaches the end
of the book, she finds that it contains only twelve tales. What
happened to the thirteenth tale?

The book intrigues her enough that she accepts Miss Winter's
invitation to a preliminary interview at her home in Yorkshire. But
after listening to her offer of an exclusive chance to tell the
real story, an unimpressed Margaret declines. The old woman has
played too many games and tricked too many people to be taken
seriously. Vida Winter has failed to convince Margaret of her
sincerity, and she starts to walk out. Only by invoking the magic
word "twin" does Vida Winter make her offer irresistible, for
Margaret Lea has been troubled by the loss of her twin sister her
entire life.

A deal is made: Miss Winter will tell her story in her own way.
Margaret will not be allowed to interrupt with questions. Once the
ground rules are set, Miss Winter begins the tale of a pair of
twins, Emmeline and Adeline Angelfield, growing up in a family of
madness. Vida Winter claims her real name is Adeline Angelfield and
her twin sister died in a terrible fire many years ago.

Finding Miss Winter's story to be shocking, surreal, sad and
totally captivating, Margaret travels to the pitiful ruin of the
Angelfield mansion. There she wanders through the old wreck of a
house, feeling the ghosts of the people she has been told about.
And feeling the eyes of the living watching her.

"A presence. Here. Now. At my side."

With a backdrop of the Yorkshire countryside, the shrouds of fog
that creep across the landscape provide an eerie setting for the
brushes with the spirits Margaret imagines she has. Or is it her
imagination? Drawing out the truth nearly destroys her and she must
find a strength deep within herself to go on, for the thirteenth
tale is the last and the best of them.

THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a gripping and spellbinding novel with a
haunting quality. The story within the story extends beyond
mesmerizing in a way that will transfix every reader. Diane
Setterfield has a gift of making each beautifully constructed
sentence draw her reader deeper into her tale. Hairs will prick the
napes of necks when she introduces the girl in the mist, and
goosebumps will rise on arms when Margaret meets Aurelius Love.
Throughout the story, the three-dimensional sense of emotion
literally pulses with Margaret's despair, her elation and her
loss.

Read this book for its dazzling turn of a phrase, its wonderful
twist on the classic ghost story and the author's stunning ability
to move her audience.