PART VAMPIRE STORY, PART HISTORICAL MYSTERY, KOSTOVA’S THE HISTORIAN tells the stories of three generations of history scholars hunting for the real Dracula — the one they believe is still alive. The story’s primary narrator, whose name is never given, finds a mysterious book on her father’s shelves. The book is empty, save for the woodcut illustration of a dragon in the book’s center. When she asks her father about the book, he begins to tell her the mysterious and horrifying tale of the appearance of the book, the disappearance of his mentor, how he and her mother met and their search for the location of Dracula’s tomb.     
The story moves back and forth in time and across Cold War Europe, taking on many voices as the young narrator, her father and his mentor all share their stories through letters and words. While the changes in point-of-view can sometimes be confusing, the device allows the reader to experience the hunt with the narrators, to share their discoveries and their terror as they realize they are not just the hunters,
but also hunted.

Review published in The Hub Weekly

written by Anita Beaman

October 13, 2005