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When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.
All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.
Disinterring the life she meant to bury for good, Vida mesmerizes Margaret with the power of her storytelling. Hers is a tale of gothic strangeness, featuring the Angelfield family -- including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline -- a ghost, a governess, and a devastating fire. Struck by a curious parallel between their stories, Margaret demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them.
The Thirteenth Tale is a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter, and in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.
瑪格麗特·李在她父親的古舊書店工作。由于愛好讀古人的傳記，她決定也嘗試為自己感興趣的古人立傳。一天，她突然收到著名作家維達·溫特的來信。溫特一直過著隱居的生活，非常神秘低調，但并不影響她作品的暢銷。在此之前，溫特編造了很多她生活經歷的離奇事情來糊弄采訪她的記者。但是，隨著年齡的增長和疾病纏身，她決定說出自己真正的人生。寫給瑪格麗特的信就是召喚瑪格麗特為她立傳。
帶著好奇，同樣深居簡出的瑪格麗特來到約克郡見到維達·溫特。按照維達的敘述，她媽媽伊莎貝爾美麗而任性，她的父親，哥哥，以及調皮的雙胞胎弟弟阿德林和埃墨林都聽從于她。瑪格麗特自己也是雙胞胎，所以她對維達的故事既疑惑，又好奇。但是作為傳記作家，她嚴格遵守真實的原則，并不完全相信維達所說。于是她開始著手調查這個家庭，按照自己的調查結果將這個家庭的故事拼接起來。然而，尋找真相的過程令人膽戰心驚，并改變了瑪格麗特自己的命運……
About Author
Diane Setterfield is a former academic, specializing in twentieth-century French literature. She lives in Yorkshire, England.
戴安娜·賽特菲爾德（Diane Setterfield），曾研究過十九、二十世紀法國文學。后開始寫作，本書是其處女作。戴安娜現居住于英國的約克郡。
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