I rarely buy books in supermarkets -- not so much for ethical reasons, though I know there's a been a lot of debate about the way they sell them for less than half the recommended retail price, but because they hardly ever seem to have any that I want to read. But I was mooching around my local Asda a few days ago looking for light bulbs and happened to pass the book section, where this one caught my eye. I had never heard of it, but I liked the look of the cover and the description sounded intriguing: twins, mysteries, books, a touch of the gothic. I've been reading a lot of classic stuff lately and felt like bit of contemporary relaxation so I thought I'd give it a go. And I have to say it really grabbed me, so that I finished it in record time. It is the story of Margaret Lea, a rather isolated, bookish girl whose life is spent working with her father in their antiquarian bookshop. Her reading has been vast and unusual, and she has dabbled in writing biography, but she is astonished when she is contacted one day by the hugely popular (but very populist) novelist Vida Winter, who invites her to write her own life story. Winter, now old and ill, is notoriously secretive about her past, but she invites Margaret to stay in her remote country house and promises to reveal things she has never revealed before. Margaret is quickly drawn in to the story, though Vida still seems to be concealing much. But she feels especially connected to the older woman because, like Vida, she was born a twin -- a fact she only discovered by chance, as her parents -- warm, kindly father, neurotic, cold mother -- have never mentioned it. She was in fact a conjoined twin, and her sister died when they were separated soon after birth, a fact which, for Margaret, explains the deep sadness she is never free from. As Vida reveals her story, piece by piece, Margaret gets increasingly intrigued and starts to try to uncover facts that she knows are being kept from her. Many strange and disturbing facts are revealed along the way, and I certainly did not guess the whole denouement until almost the end.
This is a tremendously atmospheric novel -- Diane Setterfield's first, which is impressive -- and full of deliberate allusions to 19th century fiction -- Jane Eyre in particular, but also Wuthering Heights, Rebecca (though that's not 19th century), Lady Audley's Secret, The Fall of the House of Usher and others. It is (also deliberately) impossible to tell when the novel is set. It could be in the present day, and in fact I thought it was, but it could conceivably be earlier, sometime in the 20th century.
If you want to be gripped and delightfully thrilled and chilled, this is a good way to go!
