The Thirteenth Tale

A Novel

By: Diane Setterfield

Narrated by: Bianca Amato, Jill Tanner

Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

Nancy Terrell

I absolutely loved this book-from the beginning to the end. It is one of those rare reads that I have recommended to ALL of my friends. The book is well read and beautifully written. Please hurry, Diane, and write another - and put me on the waiting list!!!

Excellent

Very well written and nicely developed story with an ending that answers all your questions !! WONDERFUL

Slow start, but worth hanging in there!

I was having trouble getting into it at first, but I'm glad I listened long enough to get hooked! Great Story!

Slow start, but pays off

It took a while for the book to captivate me, but after an hour or ... three ... I was hooked! If you like a woman's tale filled with plot twists, a few dark characters, an unlikely heroine to tackle personal struggle with tenacity and imagination then this one is quite possible for you. Worth the wait and the hours invested. I've listened to it twice...

elizabethian type tale

This tale does hold your interest if you like "jane eyre" type novels. Enough mystery and plot twists to keep you listening.

Just average

On the strength of the reviews, I thought this book would be much better than it was. I felt it was only an average listen. The maudlin emphasis on the lead character's missing twin, the too-obvious attempts to tie in to Gothic Victorian novels.

It was an average freshman novel, to my mind.

Kept my attention

Not my usual type of book, but it was good and kept my interest.

Wonderful

Wonderful! What more can you say about this book? It has made me want to go and re-read the classics mentioned in the story. Mystery, romance, suspense....as well as a ghost story. Simply fabulous!

Gothic Ghost Story

I read this book about 10 years ago and I remembered that I really liked it. I didn’t remember the details of the story, or why I liked it so much, only that I had read it and passionately enjoyed it. I just finished the audio and enjoyed it again, but I don’t feel as passionate about it this time around. It’s a good book, but I suspect that I have matured as a reader in that time.

The story itself is distinctly gothic in style. Almost to the point of being cliche. It has ALL the elements one might expect. As a rule I enjoy the gothic classics, and this book shares in the same kind of themes, plots, settings, characters, etc. In a way it feels to me as if it was intentionally written on the framework of and contrived to be gothic fiction. As if one of the main objectives of the author was to write a gothic ghost story, and here it is. The writing is fine, it isn’t notably good or bad. There are some slow points, but later in the book you’re glad you stuck through them and they do pay off. Overall the story is satisfying and unpredictable, and the characters are well developed. I would recommend it to friends who like this kind of literature, but with the above commentary.

The narration is good. It isn’t phenomenal, but both narrators do a good job. I was familiar with and liked both narrators going into this book. There are two main distinct voices and each narrator reads for one. The voices and style of reading are well matched to the character each narrator reads. The one annoying point that stuck out to me throughout was the ridiculously long pauses between chapters. It’s just long enough for you to wonder if it’s accidentally paused, get out your device and navigate to the app and then it carries on. Honestly, it’s a pretty minor post-production issue that can be easily tolerated, but I did find it annoying.

love at first read

If you love Jane Eyre, you'll love this book. I'm on my 4th reread/listen and am still enamored. The narration is perfect, the story engaging.