Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian

I don't know why but it's always difficult for me to write a review of something I absolutely loved reading. The great books leave big impression on me but the things they are great for are usually difficult to grasp. They lie hidden in the moments when I cannot put the novel down, they appear days later when I'm walking with a big fat book hangover, they pop up years later when I think I'm good to move on but realize they shaped me more than I'd ever dare to admit.

Such a book is here in front of you (or me, you may not own it). It looks inconspicuous since I bought it in a second hand book store without the dust jacket (or maybe its power is hidden in the haphazard anonymity) and maybe it seems a bit intimidating for some with its more than six hundred pages. But it is a masterpiece.

At first (during the first couple of chapters) I saw the book as a nice mild touristic guide to Europe but shortly after I realized it was more than that. The scope of one's search for the truth can be very large. The story follows a father whose daughter accidentally finds that her daddy may have a thing for Dracula. But we are talking history here, so think Vlad the Impaler, not Bela Lugosi. The worst thing is that Vlad seems to roam the Earth still. 

The tale is put together through memories, letters, ancient journals and talking to witnesses. It takes place during a couple of decades (but our narrator meticulously tries to take things chronologically) and basically it's an effort of more people to put the puzzle pieces together. What looks like a mild fascination with the dark matter soon becomes an obsession, a tale of tremendous loss, of revenge, a futile (maybe) hunt to stop the great evil and way more. 

If you can't appreciate this book then I have no idea what you are doing here. This belongs to the best novels ever written about vampires and you MUST read it. Do it. Just now. Go to a bookstore and buy it. But don't put it somewhere on your TBR pile. Read it immediately!

GENRE: adventurous tourists face the greatest evil in medieval history

FANGS OUT: it has the famous je ne sais quoi
FANGS RETRACTING: keep the fangs out, there is nothing wrong with the novel
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