The Thirteenth Tale

This may shock and amaze you all but I actually have another book to talk about today. Seriously! One that I just finished! Are you shocked and amazed? I know! I am too! (Next week I'm screwed btw)

I picked up Diane Setterfield's book, The Thirteenth Tale after reading a glowing review by Orson Scott Card, my favorite author. I figured if I like what he writes then I should like what he reads, right? Well, that little theory didn't work out so well with the last book that he highly recommended, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (bleh), but that's another story. How did it turn out this time? Let's find out.

In all honesty, for some reason when I picked up this book I thought it was going to be a fantasy. You know, kind of like Tolkien-lite only more literary. I have no idea now why I thought this, but boy, was I wrong. There was no fantasy elements at all in this book, I'm not sure why I thought this, but it was a little jarring at first until I realized I was a moron.

The Thirteenth Tale is all about stories. If you're a reader and you like good stories, you will like this book. It's not just a good story, it's about how stories affect us. How they shape our understanding of ourselves and our history. We aren't complete without our own story.

The books protagonist is Margaret Lea, a young woman who works in her father's book store and has essentially no life outside of it. She has written a couple small biographies of nearly unknown authors, and she only enjoys reading old books like Jane Eyre, books with complete and satisfactory endings. One day, however, she gets a letter from the most famous and popular authors in the world, Vida Winter. Her most famous book, The Thirteen Tales, only contains twelve stories. Guess what the thirteenth is? Mrs Winter wants Margaret to write her biography, as she is dying.

At this point the story jumps back and forth between Mrs Winter's past and Margaret's present, as the elder Mrs Winter tells her story. There are many mysteries in Mrs Winter's past, and even one in Margaret's, and it is riveting following them as they unravel. Each part of Mrs Winter's past builds on the others, and even, at times, parallel Margaret's.

I won't say much more about the plot as to not ruin anything, but I will say that this is not the kind of book I generally expect to enjoy, but I truly did. It is a true page turner, as I always wanted to find out what was going to happen next (or, should I say what happened next?). My one criticism is that some of the coincidences in the past seemed a little too easy, but, nothing was ruined for me. Also, this book had a very satisfying ending, one I think Margaret would have enjoyed. If you love a good mystery, or even if you don't, check this one out!