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.

what an amazing book
;-)
it actually needs two readings! as i discovered when i listened to some episodes of the book reading on radio national a little while ago
i had lent the book to other local readers and when it came back i read it again - how many pennies drop the second time around??

a very cleverly assembled story
there are gaps in the timeframe, but then maybe it is meant to be timeless

i especially loved the part where margaret was ill (nearer end) and the doctor prescribed conan doyle for her - in fact i read this part out to my classics book group who were discussing bronte at the time
written in the style of jane austen and the brontes, but more readable i thought

if you have the opportunity to read this one twice, i recommend it

- - - -
sending to the winner of the international chick lit sweepstakes
enjoy
enjoy

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;-)

update 13 may 2009 - message from betterworldbooks:
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Thanks for the book! I am really looking forward reading it! I have heard much praise and this book was quite widely advertised even here in Finland when it was published.

(I found the sticker with BCID already, even though I yesterday pm'd you that I had lost it!)

Amazing book, indeed! I just loved it. So full of mysteries and intriguing characters! I don't know what to say about my reading experience, other than that. I love stories where reader needs kind of solve a puzzle to understand what's going on.

My friend loaned this book.