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.

How can you not love a book about a book-lover?!

An intriguing & entertaining read that moves between the past & present: as a reclusive novelist spins her tales of the past, a young woman tries to unravel past mysteries linked to the storyteller...& to find out just who the author really is.

It's a very atmospheric tale & the parallel tales of attachment & seperation are compelling. There's some nice twists in the story & I quite liked the links with "Jane Eyre".

The only character I had a hard time with was Margaret's mother - while the reason for her actions is explained I can't imagine how a mother could treat a child in such a way (especially on her birthday! but I will say no more...)

All-in-all a very good read :o)

Released as part of the "THE" Challenge (#40)



If you're reading this then you've found a travelling book!

The point of releasing book into the "wild" is that they are a free gift from the bookcrosser to the finder.However, in this case, the book was given as a donation to
the Forget-Me-Not Trust Charity Shop
so you will have had to pay for it. Thank you for purchasing it & contributing to the charity.

Or maybe you found it else where....if so, please tell us where it has travelled to!

I hope you enjoy reading it & when you've read it, why not do entry to say where it's going next & then all it's readers, past & present, will be able to follow it's travels.

(If you decide to join in the fun at bookcrossing, please consider putting me, Plum-crazy as your referring member.....help spread the words!)