The Thirteenth Tale

A Novel

By: Diane Setterfield

Narrated by: Bianca Amato, Jill Tanner

All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.

Disinterring the life she meant to bury for good, Vida mesmerizes Margaret with the power of her storytelling. Hers is a tale of gothic strangeness, featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, and a devastating fire. Struck by a curious parallel between their stories, Margaret demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them.

The Thirteenth Tale is a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter, and in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

©2006 Diane Setterfield (P)2007 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Literary Fiction, 2007

"Bianca Amato is stunning as Margaret....[her] respect for the power of story and the written word is heard in every utterance. Jill Tanner accomplishes a tour de force as the enigmatic and mysterious Vida. In conversation her voice has the hesitancy and fragility of an elderly woman, but her voice takes on the strength and power of a master storyteller as she weaves her spellbinding life story." (AudioFile)
"Readers will be mesmerized by this story-within-a-story tinged with the eeriness of Rebecca and the willfulness of Jane Eyre. The author skillfully keeps the plot moving by unfurling a new twist in each chapter and leaves no strand untucked at the surprising and satisfying conclusion. A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled." (Booklist)

For lovers of books

Reading is highly personal, we know that what one loves, another may disdain. And so the reading of The Thirteenth Tale cannot please all. It's rare, however, to find so much divergence in reviews of this amazing story. Personally, I became enthralled after the first half hour of listening. As others have mentioned doing, I found excuses to listen. My sessions at the gym lengthened, I drove the long way home instead of taking the shortcut and I hung on every sentence. The narration is absolutely perfect for the story. Let's hope the author is hard at work on her next.

She had me...until the end...

I'm a book lover. I don't mean, I like to read and have a few books. I mean, I read a couple hundred books a year and have a room devoted just to books. (Oh what I would give to have an old fashioned library with a fireplace and a sliding ladder!) This being the case, I was immediately in love with this book. The gentle, slow way the author talked about rare books, you could tell that she loves them too. I liked the slow, plodding pace of the book. It didn't drag, nor did it rush.

I was totally in to this book until about hour 12. It started with a little irritation at the frequency that the author used the word twin. I was thinking of starting a drinking game. I would take a shot every time she said twin. Then I thought better of it, as it was before noon, and I would surely be too trashed to make dinner for my family that night. I digress. Back to the twin irritation. As I said, it was a mild irritation. I would roll my eyes and continue listening in the hopes that Miss Setterfield would pull herself together and get back to the good stuff. But then....

But then...no. It's too terrible to talk about. But I must continue, if only to caution future listeners.

I can't quite put my finger on the exact point that it started. It was a slow, gradual slipping. One that you could dismiss because the first part of the book had so much promise. But by hour 14 there was no denying it. The book was taking a headlong leap into the deep abyss.

I know that an author can't make everyone happy. They would go mad if they tried. I read reviews for books that complain the ending was too abrupt and left them scratching their heads. (Her Fearful Symmetry, for example. Hmm. Also about twins.) Then there are the reviews that say the ending was too well explained. (Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore.) I liked the ending of both books. But this book was different.

The reader is taken on a strange journey and asked to believe some things that seem outlandish. After the outlandish bits, then we are told the Thirteenth Tale. That part is interesting and should have been the end of it. But no. There is an epilogue, then a post script, then a...well I don't know what to call it. It just got weirder and weirder.

I am disappointed that a book with so much potential turned out to have an unbearable ending. It ruined the whole book for me.

Made too much of it

A excellent tale overly convoluted in lengthy detail. Very, very good narration almost saved elongated and overly detailed story. It took effort to remain interested when the descriptions dragged the story. Too detailed. Too long. Too good a story not to finish. Liked it but not too much.

Outstanding !!!!!!

I've listened to a lot of Audible books and I think this one is the best I have ever heard! I was so caught up in the story that I stayed up until 2AM just to hear the last 6 hours of the story. I believe that I could hear the whole thing over again and not be bored.
The narration was wonderful and I felt so close to the characters that I wanted to hug them in times of sorrow. I hope the author will continue with her writing as I will be a big fan. However, she'll have to go a long way to top this book.

The 13th Tale

It has been a month since I finished this listen and I still think of what a satisfying story it was. I had grown weary of so many of the books I had downloaded that I wasn't finishing them. This one got me back on track. I can't stand a contrived or overly stylized novel and this was both-yet I enjoyed it immensely. I hope to stumble onto more novels of such caliber. After I finished it my wife told me she had put in a special request for it at the library and read it before I had even ordered it. Now I know what she was doing hiding up in our bedroom back then.

Superb Narration Better than Story

The novel starts out well but doesn't completely measure up to its wonderful beginning. It is neither a ghost story nor a mystery, as other reviewers have also pointed out; there is also a plot twist towards the end that strains credibility, to say the least. The two narrators, however, are superb; they compliment each other and the story wonderfully. Both are excellent at doing other voices besides the primary speakers, too. I am glad I listened to this one instead of reading it.

Gothic, alright

This story managed to include every device and plot twist used in the books so often referred to in its tale: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Hights, Woman in White. A foundling, ethereally beautiful women (often in white,) a smart one who is plain, false identity, raging and obsessive characters, a fire, a story told in retrospect, family secrets, a ghost, kindness, cruelty, storms, you name it. It is a long, rambling, twisted tale that would have lent itself to serialization, as was so common in Victorian times. Although I think the author got carried away with the gloom and doom at times, and though she indulged herself in repetition and lengthy descriptions of the main character's thoughts, she writes beautifully, and has a true love of words. I wanted to keep on to find out one mystery after another. The two narrators of the audio version did very well.

Gush Fest

I'm a little surprised by the gush fest for this book. The writing and narration were solid, but the plot was predictable, especially to anybody who has read Jane Austen.

Also, I take exception with some reviewers referring to the book as a "ghost story" or "mystery". It's neither. On the whole, it doesn't rate more than 3 stars.

Captive

This book held me captive for several nights in a row. It was a great listen.

Lots of twists and turns

Would you listen to The Thirteenth Tale again? Why?

Maybe, but I'm not one to read books twice anyway. The second time around would certainly help it make more sense though. I was confused and intrigued in this book and it had enough in it to make me want to get to the end, but it was slow for me. As the story unfolded it was hard for me to wrap my head around all that was happening, so maybe I should read it again :). There were a couple of very brief but weird sexual moments I wish they would have omitted. That's the problem with audible is that you can't glance and see how far to skip ahead. Thankfully these were pretty brief from what I can remember.