The Historian

In This Internationally Bestselling Novel, The Author Of The Swan Thieves Has 'refashioned The Vampire Myth Into A Compelling...late-night Page-turner' - San Francisco Chronicle Late One Night, Exploring Her Father's Library, A Young Woman Finds An Ancient Book And A Cache Of Yellowing Letters Addressed Ominously To 'my Dear And Unfortunate Successor'. Her Discovery Plunges Her Into A World She Never Dreamed Of - A Labyrinth Where The Secrets Of Her Father's Past And Her Mother's Mysterious Fate Connect To An Evil Hidden In The Depths Of History. In Those Few Quiet Moments, She Unwittingly Assumes A Quest She Will Discover Is Her Birthright - A Hunt For The Truth About Vlad The Impaler, The Medieval Ruler Whose Barbarous Reign Formed The Basis Of The Dracula Myth. Deciphering Obscure Signs And Hidden Texts, Reading Codes Worked Into The Fabric Of Medieval Monastic Traditions, And Evading Terrifying Adversaries, One Woman Comes Ever Closer To The Secret Of Her Own Past And A Confrontation With The Very Definition Of Evil. Elizabeth Kostova's Debut Novel Is An Adventure Of Monumental Proportions - A Captivating Tale That Blends Fact And Fantasy, History And The Present With An Assurance That Is Almost Unbearably Suspenseful - And Utterly Unforgettable. 'quite Extraordinary....kostova Is A Natural Storyteller....she Has Refashioned The Vampire Myth Into A Compelling Contemporary Novel, A Late-night Page-turner' - San Francisco Chronicle 'filled With Fascinating Details Of Archaic Vampire Lore, The Splendours Of The Ottoman Empire And The Beauty Of The Romanian Countryside' - Times Literary Supplement Amazon.com Review If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian . The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also. As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union. Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read--even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen--its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling "a large family," she tried to forget the words: "For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth." The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. --Regina Marler From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Considering the recent rush of door-stopping historical novels, first-timer Kostova is getting a big launch—fortunately, a lot here lives up to the hype. In 1972, a 16-year-old American living in Amsterdam finds a mysterious book in her diplomat father's library. The book is ancient, blank except for a sinister woodcut of a dragon and the word "Drakulya," but it's the letters tucked inside, dated 1930 and addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," that really pique her curiosity. Her widowed father, Paul, reluctantly provides pieces of a chilling story; it seems this ominous little book has a way of forcing itself on its owners, with terrifying results. Paul's former adviser at Oxford, Professor Rossi, became obsessed with researching Dracula and was convinced that he remained alive. When Rossi disappeared, Paul continued his quest with the help of another scholar, Helen, who had her own reasons for seeking the truth. As Paul relates these stories to his daughter, she secretly begins her own research. Kostova builds suspense by revealing the threads of her story as the narrator discovers them: what she's told, what she reads in old letters and, of course, what she discovers directly when the legendary threat of Dracula looms. Along with all the fascinating historical information, there's also a mounting casualty count, and the big showdown amps up the drama by pulling at the heartstrings at the same time it revels in the gruesome. Exotic locales, tantalizing history, a family legacy and a love of the bloodthirsty: it's hard to imagine that readers won't be bitten, too. 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