Performed by Justine Eyre and Paul Michael
Little, Brown and Company/Audible
Historical Fiction
Historical Thriller
Paranormal Fiction/Vampire
Hard Cover and Unabridged Audio Book
Rating: 5
A CK2S Recommended Read!
PLEASE NOTE: I had the audio version of this book so cannot guarantee all of my spellings are correct.
The Historian starts off with a young girl, our unnamed narrator, discovering an ancient book in her father, Paul's library and a pile of letters addressed to "my poor unfortunate successor." As she reads the letters she becomes aware of a decades long quest for the truth of Vlad Tepes, AKA Dracula, where his tomb is located, and whether or not he is dead. Almost immediately we discover he is a vampire and events take off from there.
Three different timelines are occurring simultaneously. We experience the original quest of Paul’s mentor, Bartolomew Rossi as a young man, to find the tomb. Then the second timeline is when Paul goes searching for the missing from the university Rossi, accompanied by The equally obsessed Helen. The final timeline is when the young narrator finds a note from her missing father and goes on a quest to find him, and the truth about Vlad. All three stories intersect repeatedly throughout the book giving a vivid look at the strange story of Vlad Tepes and many people's searches for the secrets he jealously hides, killing just about anyone who crosses him.
The Historian is extremely complicated to give adequate review of due to the immensity of the story and the variety of unfolding events. It is very hard to read as well, requiring intense concentration to keep all of the timelines straight. Each time I started a new listening session, I had to backtrack significantly to refresh my memory of previous events and get back into the flow of the story. In spite of the complexity, or perhaps because of, I adored this book and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. I know I missed a lot, not being able to spend long periods of time at one stretch listening, but while it may have confused me a time or two, it did not affect my enjoyment. Part of the pleasure of reading this book is the mystery and trying to guess what would come next.
So much history, so much imagery, three generations of romances all connected through tenuous threads of blood and knowledge, The Historian is such a fascinating and compelling read I encourage everyone who knows anything about the story of Dracula to give this book a try. Do not be discouraged by the length, it is well worth the satisfaction of knowing you finished such a fantastic book. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is one incredible book!
The only thing I can think of to possibly make the listening experience more enjoyable would have been to have three narrators instead of two. I think if there were one performer for each individual quest, it would have helped me keep up with the transitions between timelines. Don’t misunderstand me though, Paul Michael and Justine Eyre do an amazing job performing this novel. If not for the talent of these performers, I probably would have had a hard time keeping up with events as well as I did.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, March 2008. All rights reserved.
~eHQ April 2008 Member of the Month~
