Its hard to describe Elizabeth Kostova?s The Historian in just a few words. Its part tale of the macabre as it unfolds the story of the hunt for the apparently-not-mythical Dracula, part travelogue as the author takes us through various parts of Western and Eastern Europe over a time frame stretch from the 1930s to the mid-1950s and, ultimately, the 1970s, and its part history as the story of the origins of Dracula becomes itself a story of the early encounters between Christian Europe and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. At times, there are so many intertwining plots and stories unfolding, that its a wonder that the author didn’t completely lose track and let the story fall apart. In the end, though, what is left is a book that is a page-turner in every sense of the word.
While Dracula himself isn’t unveiled until the final 150 pages of the book, and then at first only in the journal of one of the men who had been chasing him through history, his presence over shadows the story, but not so completely that it overwhelms the stories of the other characters. Each story gets its own change to unfold, until ultimately the each come together at the end. Even minor characters that we meet for only a chapter or two are skteched with incredible detail.
But one of the best things about the book is the way in which it captures the cities of Europe, both East and West. I’ve never been to Istanbul, but the author’s description of the Hagia Sophia makes me want to hop on a plane and go there as soon as I can. The same can be said for her wonderful description of Budapest, Hungary in the years before the Soviet Union crushed Eastern Europe’s first efforts to reach for freedom.
Though vampires are central to the story of the novel, this is not a story about Dracula coming in the night to suck the blood of young women. It is a novel about history and historians and the search for the truth. Given that this is the author’s first novel, I look forward to seeing what might come next.
