The Thirteenth Tale
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Bianca Amato
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Jill Tanner
About this listen
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, 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.
©2006 Diane Setterfield (P)2007 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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"Bianca Amato is stunning as Margaret....[her] respect for the power of story and the written word is heard in every utterance. Jill Tanner accomplishes a tour de force as the enigmatic and mysterious Vida. In conversation her voice has the hesitancy and fragility of an elderly woman, but her voice takes on the strength and power of a master storyteller as she weaves her spellbinding life story." (AudioFile)
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Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
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Ember Island
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A compelling tale of two women separated by a century who discover long-buried secrets in an Australian manor house. In 1891, Tilly Kirkland is reeling with shock and guilt after her tempestuous marriage ends in horrific circumstances. Fleeing to the farthest place she knows, Tilly takes a job on Ember Island in Moreton Bay, Australia, where she becomes the governess to the prison superintendent's precocious young daughter, Nell.
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Not her best book
- By Beth on 05-02-18
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Lost Among the Living
- By: Simone St. James
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to Wych Elm House, the family's estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband's origins...and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths' past is just the beginning.
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Interesting Story
- By Isobel on 05-07-16
By: Simone St. James
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Silver Wattle
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
- By OrangeWisteria on 02-12-12
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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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A Share in Death
- By: Deborah Crombie
- Narrated by: Michael Deehy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....
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series readers, start here
- By connie on 02-09-13
By: Deborah Crombie
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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A Great Deliverance
- Inspector Lynley, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth George
- Narrated by: Donada Peters
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an ax in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry".
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good debut novel
- By Stevon on 11-11-19
By: Elizabeth George
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The Lost Hours
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Beth Devries
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Piper Mills was 12, she helped her grandfather bury a box that belonged to her grandmother in the backyard. For 12 years, it remained untouched. Now a near-fatal accident has shattered Piper's dreams of Olympic glory. After her grandfather's death, she inherits the house and all its secrets, including a key to a room that doesn't exist - or does it? And after her grandmother is sent away to a nursing home, she remembers the box buried in the backyard.
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A historical mystery, fun characters - diverting
- By V. Stone on 05-25-12
By: Karen White
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Sea Change
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Kate Forbes, Peggity Price
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Karen White' s New York Times best-selling novels keep audiences up well into the night with their compelling plots and engaging characters. Sea Change is a riveting tale of second chances, forgiveness, and leaps of faith. Plagued by feelings of loneliness and not belonging, 35-year-old Ava Whalen is as shocked as anyone when she falls for child psychologist Matthew Frazier, elopes with him, and settles down on St. Simons Island, Georgia. But her newfound happiness is threatened when her past proves difficult to escape.
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Slow moving
- By Mon on 11-21-12
By: Karen White
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Loved the compelling audiobook version!
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What listeners say about The Thirteenth Tale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Marilee
- 11-21-06
For lovers of books
Reading is highly personal, we know that what one loves, another may disdain. And so the reading of The Thirteenth Tale cannot please all. It's rare, however, to find so much divergence in reviews of this amazing story. Personally, I became enthralled after the first half hour of listening. As others have mentioned doing, I found excuses to listen. My sessions at the gym lengthened, I drove the long way home instead of taking the shortcut and I hung on every sentence. The narration is absolutely perfect for the story. Let's hope the author is hard at work on her next.
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34 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- january
- 05-02-13
She had me...until the end...
I'm a book lover. I don't mean, I like to read and have a few books. I mean, I read a couple hundred books a year and have a room devoted just to books. (Oh what I would give to have an old fashioned library with a fireplace and a sliding ladder!) This being the case, I was immediately in love with this book. The gentle, slow way the author talked about rare books, you could tell that she loves them too. I liked the slow, plodding pace of the book. It didn't drag, nor did it rush.
I was totally in to this book until about hour 12. It started with a little irritation at the frequency that the author used the word twin. I was thinking of starting a drinking game. I would take a shot every time she said twin. Then I thought better of it, as it was before noon, and I would surely be too trashed to make dinner for my family that night. I digress. Back to the twin irritation. As I said, it was a mild irritation. I would roll my eyes and continue listening in the hopes that Miss Setterfield would pull herself together and get back to the good stuff. But then....
But then...no. It's too terrible to talk about. But I must continue, if only to caution future listeners.
I can't quite put my finger on the exact point that it started. It was a slow, gradual slipping. One that you could dismiss because the first part of the book had so much promise. But by hour 14 there was no denying it. The book was taking a headlong leap into the deep abyss.
I know that an author can't make everyone happy. They would go mad if they tried. I read reviews for books that complain the ending was too abrupt and left them scratching their heads. (Her Fearful Symmetry, for example. Hmm. Also about twins.) Then there are the reviews that say the ending was too well explained. (Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore.) I liked the ending of both books. But this book was different.
The reader is taken on a strange journey and asked to believe some things that seem outlandish. After the outlandish bits, then we are told the Thirteenth Tale. That part is interesting and should have been the end of it. But no. There is an epilogue, then a post script, then a...well I don't know what to call it. It just got weirder and weirder.
I am disappointed that a book with so much potential turned out to have an unbearable ending. It ruined the whole book for me.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jesse
- 11-03-06
Made too much of it
A excellent tale overly convoluted in lengthy detail. Very, very good narration almost saved elongated and overly detailed story. It took effort to remain interested when the descriptions dragged the story. Too detailed. Too long. Too good a story not to finish. Liked it but not too much.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Joanne Kuhnlein
- 12-10-06
Outstanding !!!!!!
I've listened to a lot of Audible books and I think this one is the best I have ever heard! I was so caught up in the story that I stayed up until 2AM just to hear the last 6 hours of the story. I believe that I could hear the whole thing over again and not be bored.
The narration was wonderful and I felt so close to the characters that I wanted to hug them in times of sorrow. I hope the author will continue with her writing as I will be a big fan. However, she'll have to go a long way to top this book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Darrell Rupe
- 04-21-08
The 13th Tale
It has been a month since I finished this listen and I still think of what a satisfying story it was. I had grown weary of so many of the books I had downloaded that I wasn't finishing them. This one got me back on track. I can't stand a contrived or overly stylized novel and this was both-yet I enjoyed it immensely. I hope to stumble onto more novels of such caliber. After I finished it my wife told me she had put in a special request for it at the library and read it before I had even ordered it. Now I know what she was doing hiding up in our bedroom back then.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 11-28-06
Superb Narration Better than Story
The novel starts out well but doesn't completely measure up to its wonderful beginning. It is neither a ghost story nor a mystery, as other reviewers have also pointed out; there is also a plot twist towards the end that strains credibility, to say the least. The two narrators, however, are superb; they compliment each other and the story wonderfully. Both are excellent at doing other voices besides the primary speakers, too. I am glad I listened to this one instead of reading it.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Janeite
- 03-22-10
Gothic, alright
This story managed to include every device and plot twist used in the books so often referred to in its tale: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Hights, Woman in White. A foundling, ethereally beautiful women (often in white,) a smart one who is plain, false identity, raging and obsessive characters, a fire, a story told in retrospect, family secrets, a ghost, kindness, cruelty, storms, you name it. It is a long, rambling, twisted tale that would have lent itself to serialization, as was so common in Victorian times. Although I think the author got carried away with the gloom and doom at times, and though she indulged herself in repetition and lengthy descriptions of the main character's thoughts, she writes beautifully, and has a true love of words. I wanted to keep on to find out one mystery after another. The two narrators of the audio version did very well.
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Overall
- Sandy Sells Alamogordo!
- 11-15-06
Gush Fest
I'm a little surprised by the gush fest for this book. The writing and narration were solid, but the plot was predictable, especially to anybody who has read Jane Austen.
Also, I take exception with some reviewers referring to the book as a "ghost story" or "mystery". It's neither. On the whole, it doesn't rate more than 3 stars.
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Overall
- Tim
- 11-17-10
Captive
This book held me captive for several nights in a row. It was a great listen.
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Story
- shrockin
- 01-17-13
Lots of twists and turns
Would you listen to The Thirteenth Tale again? Why?
Maybe, but I'm not one to read books twice anyway. The second time around would certainly help it make more sense though. I was confused and intrigued in this book and it had enough in it to make me want to get to the end, but it was slow for me. As the story unfolded it was hard for me to wrap my head around all that was happening, so maybe I should read it again :). There were a couple of very brief but weird sexual moments I wish they would have omitted. That's the problem with audible is that you can't glance and see how far to skip ahead. Thankfully these were pretty brief from what I can remember.
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