2007 Audie Award Winner for Literary Fiction

List $49.95

Written by Diane Setterfield - audio book performed by Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner - Unabridged Fiction - 14 COMPACT DISCS

Publisher, Simon & Schuster Audioworks (September 2006)

Listen to a Windows Media audio clip.

All children mythologize their birth. . . . So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.

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, and 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.

About the Author: Diane Setterfield is a former academic, specializing in twentieth-century French literature. She lives in Yorkshire, England.

About the Performers: Bianca Amato as Margaret Lea was born in South Africa, and gained her degree in Speech and Drama from the University of Cape Town. She is a well-known, award-winning classical stage and television actress, both in South Africa and in the United States, where she now resides.

Jill Tanner as Vida Winter is celebrating her 40th year in the theatre. She was a principal actor with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for eight years and has appeared in classical as well as new American plays both on and Off-Broadway. She has recorded over 100 books for the Library of Congress.