Congratulations to book review winner Marbry Stewart, who wrote a well thought out review of the April book of the month, The Historian. Here it is for your review:
Have you experienced the incredible adventure of reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Or have you merely subjected yourself to various cinematic interpretations of the book with their inherent flaws? If the subject matter of Dracula (via the novel or the films) is your cup of tea (or your chalice of a somewhat different liquid), then you must read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This book is a rare treat that you may choose to add to your personal library right next to a copy of Dracula.
The Historian is a paradox within a mystery within a puzzle, twisting and turning through four different plots set in different periods of time. The four story lines are inexorably intertwined and lead to the surprising climax. Each story contains elements of intrigue, romance and excitement. Once you start the adventure it is difficult to interrupt it. This book brings recreational reading to new heights.
The story follows a young woman on her quest to unlock her father’s mysterious past. Then when he disappears (as her mother did many years ago), she embarks on a dangerous journey of discovery on which we accompany her. She leads us through a fantastic tale presented through the books, letters and manuscripts she has discovered in her father’s study in their home in Amsterdam.
Her father’s story begins when he is a student researching the somewhat prosaic subject of his dissertation in the university library. As he is preparing to leave the library, he finds a mysterious book that has somehow ended up among his own books. Unsuccessful at his attempts to find the rightful owner of what appears to be a valuable and unique edition, he begins a quest to unlock the mystery behind it. Gradually, other similar books are brought to light, one of which is in the possession of his advisor, also his mentor and friend Rossi.
Rossi is inspired to embark on a quest of sorts, an historian’s hunt for Dracula, a real Dracula—Drakulya—Vlad III, a fifteenth-century tyrant who lived in Transylvania and Wallachia. This is the heart of the book, the search for the historical Dracula by a group of historians, all acting independently of one another and yet bound to each other in the search, which precipitates unexpected acts of violence, courage and self-revelation. Dracula himself reveals that he, too, is an historian: “. . .I became an historian in order to preserve my own history forever.”
This incredible book takes the reader on a fantastic journey of epic proportions, through exotic terrain, physical, spiritual and mental. It reveals times and places that are inaccessible except through the magic of imagination stimulated by a tale well-told. But be forewarned, once you pick it up, you will not easily be able to put it down.