The thirteenth tale, Diane Setterfield.

Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise–she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.

Late one night, while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.

As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets. As well as the ghosts that haunt them still.

Je suis probablement une des dernières à avoir lu ce livre qui traîne depuis au moins 2 ans sur mes tablettes. Je serai brève, j'ai été absorbée par ce livre!!! J'ai tout aimé de ce roman. La couverture, le papier inégal, les personnages, le rythme et l'histoire... Si quelqu'un me demandait de lui raconter une histoire, c'est ce bouquin que je ressortirais pour l'occasion. La V.O. n'est pas difficile à lire, le vocabulaire plus compliqué est souvent le même.

La fin est celle dont rêvent tous les lecteurs (comme moi!) qui ne peuvent vivre dans le mystère, puisqu'elle nous dévoile ce que chacun des personnages est devenu. J'aime beaucoup! Il sera dans mon top 3 du mois et probablement dans mon top 10 de l'année...