The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005)
Read: May-June 2010
We bought this book in the UK at Christmas time as we'd seen numerous copies in charity shop, after charity shop and so deduced that it must be popular. Also the title was obviously a draw for Scotty!
Scott read it first a few months ago and I finally got onto it last month and only had to put my mind to it slightly these last two weeks to make sure I finished it before the summer. I wanted to make sure I had it finished because at 704 pages it is quite a tome!
There were only a few times when I picked it up that I was confused by the narrative - otherwise I enjoyed the dual story-telling devise that Kostova uses. Part of the story is told by the daughter of an academic, the other part of the story is told by the acadmic himself as he speaks to his daughter. This is interspersed with letters and extracts from texts written by, about, or being read by other characters.
There are two parts to the novel, and within these two parts there is obviously the two different narratives. For me, this meant it didn't feel like I had over 700 pages to get through. This was quite impressive for a book of this lenght for the story to keep going at a good pace and the reader not be lost. What keeps the book together is the reader themselves trying to solve the mystery and follow the story as the narrative and narrators move about. The changing narrative was a great device and allowed the reader to see both the father and daughter as they grew up with the dracula puzzle.
Somehow it's not totally predictable that dracula is found in a hidden tomb, as again the story keeps moving and feels modern and new, rather than old and repeated.
