The Thirteenth Tale
Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny.
Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness – featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess,a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.
Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield (born 1964) is a British author whose 2006 debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, became a New York Times No. 1 best-seller. It is written in the Gothic tradition, with echoes of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Her debut novel was turned into a television film.
Before writing, Setterfield studied French Literature at The University of Bristol. Setterfield's PhD is on autobiographical structures in André Gide's early fiction. Setterfield taught at numerous schools as well as privately before leaving academia in the late 1990s. The Thirteenth Tale has been acquired by David Heyman at Heyday Films. It has been adapted for television by Christopher Hampton. It was shown on BBC2 in December 2013 and stars Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman. Diane Setterfield's new novel, Bellman & Black, was published in the autumn of 2013 by Emily Bestler Books/Atria in the United States and by Orion in the UK. Diane Setterfield currently lives in Oxford, England.
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