Friday, December 7, 2007

The Thirteenth Tale

Title: The Thirteenth Tale
Author: Diane Setterfield
Orion Books, 2007 (2006)

This is a novel where good old story-telling is the centerpiece. Not language, or narrative tricks or media hype. Thus, it is something to save for Christmas, something to cosy up with in a big armchair with a huge cup of tea and just let the pages carry you off into a different time and a different world. Which they will.

Enigmatic and celebrated author Vida Winter has lied to and misled journalists about her background throughout her splendid career, but as her life is coming to a close, she is ready to tell her story - the thirteenth tale - to a biographer she has chosen herself. This biographer, Margaret Lea, is invited to Winter's reclusively situated Yorkshire estate, to hear her story. But Margaret will find that history is not something that is just unfolding in the past, it is very much a part of the present. Read it!

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