Recently Read

The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield

I read The Thirteenth Tale a couple of weeks ago. The book revolves around two main characters: Margaret Lea, an amateur biographer and professional book lover, and Vida Winter, the reclusive and prolific writer of the best and most popular books of her time. Winter is nearing the end of her life and finally wants to "tell the truth" about her life to someone.

The first few chapters are enjoyable and well written. They give you a strong understanding of Margaret and the world she inhabits, and set you up for Ms. Winter's tale. I read a chapter or two as time allowed each night, and felt really excited about the book. Then I started the chapters that held Ms. Winter's tale one morning.

And I didn't stop until I had finished the book.

Vida's tale is haunting, beautiful, mystifying, even sordid - though Setterfield's writing is never crude and only states what must be said to understand the story. By the end you realize you have read a book about books, about stories, about twins, about ghosts. And it leaves you feeling haunted the way a good book should.

(note: I am going to try to include a link to my review of any books or movies in the right hand column. So from now on if you were to click on The Thirteenth Tale under the Recently Read list, it would bring you directly to this post.)