Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Atria Books (2006), Edition: 1st, 709 pages
Description
When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.
Media reviews
A family saga with Gothic overtones, dark secrets, lost twins, a tragic fire, a missing manuscript and over-obvious nods to Jane Eyre, Rebecca and The Woman in White, it reads like something a creative writing class might write as a committee, for the sole purpose of coming up with a novel that
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would suit a book group (and tellingly, there are "Reading Group Study Notes" at the back suggesting topics for discussion). Show Less
The Thirteenth Tale is not without fault. The gentle giant Aurelius is a stock character, and the ending is perhaps a little too concerned with tying up all loose ends. But it is a remarkable first novel, a book about the joy of books, a riveting multi-layered mystery that twists and turns, and
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weaves a quite magical spell for most of its length. Show Less
"The Thirteenth Tale" keeps us reading for its nimble cadences and atmospheric locales, as well as for its puzzles, the pieces of which, for the most part, fall into place just as we discover where the holes are. And yet, for all its successes -- and perhaps because of them -- on the whole the book
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feels unadventurous, content to rehash literary formulas rather than reimagine them. Show Less
~The San Diego Union-Tribune
A book that you wake in the middle of the night craving to get back to...Timeless, charming, a pure pleasure to read...The Thirteenth Tale is a book to savor a dozen times.
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2007)
Buckeye Children's & Teen Book Award (Nominee — Teen — 2008)
Alex Award (2007)
Quill Award (Winner — Debut Author — 2007)
Dilys Award (Nominee — 2007)
Original publication date
2006-09-12