The Thirteenth Tale

Content Warning: The source material includes descriptions of murder, death by suicide, and sexual assault.

Margaret arrives at the bookshop that she and her father own in London, and she sees a letter left on the front steps. The handwriting is strange and old-fashioned. She goes inside and opens the letter. It is from one of England’s most famous and notoriously reticent authors, Vida Winter. She writes that she has always told journalists fictional stories when they ask about her personal life, so much so that it became a badge of honor to interview her and listen to one of her stories. One day, a young man comes to interview her and asks her to tell the truth. She considers it but tells him a fictional story instead. Afterward, she realizes that she must tell the true story one day. Now, 30 years later, she has decided that it is time to tell the story, and she wants to tell it to Margaret. She invites Margaret to come to her home in Yorkshire the following Monday. Margaret has never read one of Vida’s books, but she knows the writer’s reputation as England’s bestselling author. She recalls a time when they received four of Vida’s books at the shop and sold three of them within hours.