Book Reviews

The 13th Tale

By: Diane Setterfield

no. 1

Summary:

Dad’s off from his bookshop. When I come home late, went to the bookshop for something. A letter for me. Through reading the letter, I became enthralled to Vida Winter. Knowing her through epithets, I start to make impressions from her. As I have seen her from a photograph, I’ve known the mystery behind her, “Why would she want to tell the truth from me?”.

I, Margaret Lea, who had lived in an environment filled with books, gave me the destiny of becoming a famous biographer. In that case, Vida Winter forced me to be her biographer. But as I’ve known the truth that I have a dead twin, I decided to wrote a letter of refusal to Vida Winter’s invitation. From the letter of invitation by Vida Winter, I can’t sleep from the words keep uttering through my head – Tell me the truth – so I ran downstairs to find a book that could replaced those words by reading through it. From my rummaging to the shop, I’ve found the Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation by Vida Winter. The next morning, my father groaned from the disappearance of one of his Vida Winter’s books. To stopped him from groaning, I’ve said that I borrowed it. Through his indulgence to Vida Winter, my mind have forced me to take the invitation of Vida Winter and so I did.

The next day, I left our house via a train. As I came closer to the house of Vida Winter, I felt a cold and queer feeling about her house. Though her house was the same as the person that had lived in there. Silent. Alone. Cold. Though my impressions suited to it, I felt a warm hospitability by Judith, her housekeeper. Vida Winter invited me to her library, until in my memory it was forgotten as I read through the books in her library. She surprised me through the back-of-the-neck experience and we started the interview with the magic three rule. I asked her of her name, place of birth and the life before she changes her real name. She started it with her lost twin, Emmeline, in...