Castle ruins, Eastern European folklore, and a sinister evil await you in Kostova's debut novel. The story begins in 1972 Amsterdam, when a teenage girl discovers an ancient book in her father's study that contains only a woodcut of a large dragon within its blank pages. Also hidden within the pages are a series of yellowing letters, all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl questions her father, Paul, about these findings, he reluctantly tells her of a time twenty years ago when his mentor and friend, Professor Rossi, disappeared suddenly after confiding of his belief that Dracula was still alive. After Paul shares this information with his daughter, he too disappears, leaving only a note behind."The Historian" spans across four decades and consists of three story lines - one from the 1930s, when Bartholomew Rossi begins his treacherous search for Dracula, the next from the 1950s, when his student Paul takes up the search after Rossi's disappearance, and then the main narrative from 1972. Travels take each of the searchers deep into Eastern Europe, the home of Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula.
No comments:
Post a Comment