The Thirteenth Tale

A Novel

Winner of the 2007 Audie Award for Literary Fiction and Finalist for Multi-Voiced Performance

Instant #1 New York Times bestseller

“Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.”—People

“Eerie and fascinating.”—USA TODAY

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.

Wonderful Book!

I hadn't read a fiction book in years. My sister's book club read this one last year and voted it best book of the year. What a treat! Excellent character development and storyline.

Wonderful Work

It started off slowly, but boy when it got going, I was lost in it. What a great storyteller Ms. Satterfield is. I enjoyed her characters and was caught up with the story within the story. I would like to read what else this author has done as her development of the characters was fantastic and her style is great. I look forward to more.

a good balance between narrators

I gave it five stars because the story really sucked me in. The story itself was GREAT, I'm sad it's over, but I was very satisfied with the ending. Very satisfied.
I felt the narrator of the story, Margret, could be a little overly dramatic(The character Margret, not Bianca Amato, the actual narrator.. she did her job well conveying the character's...character)

I had to chuckle at the part where she said the doctor was secretly laughing at her. Good, I wasn't the only one...the author knew what she was doing, and that was a nice break to let us all know that indeed she was a bit overly dramatic.

However, I've been having fun talking like her all week, and my husband keeps rolling his eyes. I better give the guy a break before he strains them.

It was almost a relief at times when Ms. Winter started telling her story. Her narration was wonderful and refreshing. Her straightforward, sometimes harsh(yet not at all heartless) retelling of the story was just the balance that the book needed.

Hiding truth behind a great story

Glorious pros carefully crafted in the midst of perfectly, distinctly, phrased rhythms of sound. Mesmerizing, in their gentility, the words land so softly on my ear while their profound darkness ever so slowly seeps into my mind. I start but stop 4 chapters in. I can not continue to listen for days and weeks my mind hesitates. I fear the loss of my heroine to some unspeakable danger just as I lost another to the preternatural in "The Historian". So I cheat. I listen far far ahead for just 15 minutes......and the reader again draws me in to begin again to the end ; and such a glorious satisfying end it is!

Enchanting!

Once the storyteller began, I was mesmerised. The plot began, and I felt sorry for Isabel. Charlie needed help. Then came the twins. What fun! I won't spoil the book, by giving away the ending, but it beats most gothic novels hands down.