Vida Winter, a bestselling yet reclusive novelist, has created many outlandish life histories for herself, all of them invention. Now old and ailing, at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to biographer Margaret Lea - a woman with secrets of her own - is a summons. Vida's tale is one of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family: the beautiful and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling, but as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction and she doesn't trust Vida's account. As she begins her researches, two parallel stories unfold. Join Margaret as she begins her journey to the truth - hers, as well as Vida's.
Once I finished this book, I really enjoyed it. In the reading, however, I had some mixed feelings. I pride myself on kind of knowing what's going to happen... Being able to predict, in part, how the story will change and grow. This book, however, was an exception to that. I never saw any of the twists until I was in the thick of them. I think it's written extremely well, and I adore the main character, Margaret. She reminds me of me, and I can identify with her quite a bit. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a quicker read with some substance to it.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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10 July, 2012:
Finished reading
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10 July, 2012:
Reviewed