The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield: An Audiobook Review

Let’s begin by saying that The Thirteenth Tale is a long story. A dramatic saga. This book is not a quick thriller, offers no superficial candy, and doesn’t grab you by the throat with intensity. It’s a life story, and, at 406 pages or 15hr 40 min listening time, it takes a while to get through.

The prose, like the characters, is very stiff-upper-lip. The main characters, Vida Winter and Margaret Lea, are rigid — properly starchy — with no tom-foolery falling off the pages. I’m not sure I laughed out loud once, but then again, this is very clearly a tragedy, not a comedy. The Bard would have been impressed.

Upon completion of listening, I checked the book’s release date. I assumed, from its gothic, historical fiction structure and delivery, that this book must have been written in the 1940s or 50s. It shocked me to learn that The Thirteenth Tale hit bookstores in 2006 — it reads like Brontë and Dickens.

Set in the UK, the story revolves around Vida Winter, a megastar author whose life story is as hidden as her books are popular. Over the years, Miss Winter has conducted countless interviews, with each journalist asking for her real-life history. Miss Winter, always the…