The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Margaret and her mother are bound by a singular loss - the death of Margaret's twin sister.As the story unfolds, we learn that Margaret and Miss Winter are both twins.How are the houses reflections of their inhabitants? Much of the novel takes place in two grand estates - Angelfield and then Miss Winter's.What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida's storytelling, but she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. Vida's strange, gothic tale features the Angelfield family dark-hearted Charlie and his unbrotherly obsession with his sister, the fascinating, devious, and willful Isabelle, and Isabelle's daughters, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline. Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. 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. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. 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. 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.

Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny. “Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.”- People Winner of the 2007 Audie Award for Literary Fiction and Finalist for Multi-Voiced Performance

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield