The Thirteenth Tale

Margaret Lee works in her father's antiquarian bookshop. She prefers Dickens and the Brontë sisters to modern literature. Thus, Margaret's surprise is immense when she receives an offer from the most famous writer of our time, Vida Winter, to become her biographer. For no less than with her books, Miss Winter is famous for never telling a single interviewer a word of truth. And so, before Margaret, who finds herself within the walls of a gloomy mansion inhabited by ghosts of the past, unfolds a literal gothic story of twin sisters, which strangely echoes her personal history and gradually leads to the unraveling of the mystery that has driven many generations of readers mad - the mystery of "The Thirteenth Tale"...

"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield is a recognized masterpiece of contemporary English prose, a book that opened the genre of "neo-gothic" to the general public and made Anglo-American critics speak of the return of the golden age of the British novel, steeped in the names of Charlotte and Emily Brontë and Daphne du Maurier. The debut novel of a modest teacher, the rights to which were bought for previously unheard-of sums for a debut author (£800,000 for the British edition, $1 million for the American edition), surpassed the bestsellers of recent years in sales, was instantaneously translated into several dozen languages, and earned from critics the honorary title of "the new 'Jane Eyre'".