The Historian

By: Elizabeth Kostova

Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael

Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known - and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself - to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive.

What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed - and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign - and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.

Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions - and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers - one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful - and utterly unforgettable.

©2008 Elizabeth Kostova (P)2016 Random House Audio

Disappointing ending, otherwise excellent

I'll try to write this without giving away any spoilers. I started reading The Historian years ago when it first came out and put it aside for some reason. So when I saw the audio version was available, I decided to give it a go. The narrators did a great job, and the writing is beautiful, with gorgeous attention to detail. I was totally pulled into the story and the development of the characters. Unfortunately, I feel like the author didn't quite know what to do with her creation at the end and we had an abrupt and unsatisfying denouement with the Dracula thread. The entire book leads up to meeting Dracula, and as soon as we're given a glimpse of his character... Well, let's just say I was disappointed with the way it all wrapped up. It's quite a long listen at about 24 hours, and I do wish the payoff had been better conceived, but maybe that's just me.

Luscious !

Wonderfully descriptive and beautifully told. Worth every moment of my time. I read the book some time ago, but to hear it read offered new perspective and beautiful imagery !

Overly long

The book is twice as long as it needed to be. There are lots of plot twists that go no where. The writer obviously researched the Balkans or knows it from personal experience and that really is what holds the story together. I bought this as a recommended book an that was a mistake. There just is too much story that goes no where and has made a fascinating concept ... into a bad soap opera.

luved it

luved it both times hope tget make it a movie blah blah blah 15 words

Reads like a text book

The narration is wonderful. The book itself however is dry and not just a bit boring. Hard to finish.

loved this book ❤️

Amazing 😍. This book takes you on an exciting adventure that takes crazy turns through history.

kept my attention

loved the book up until the end which left me feeling a little unfulfilled. but wouldn't hesitate to recommend the book

I really enjoyed this one!

It defies genre. Historical vampire fiction perhaps. Quite long but it's quite a good story.

a must read

it's a book that gets better with every read. language and tone that transport you

Enjoyable journey

I really enjoyed how well researched this novel was. The characters were well rounded and had distinctive voices, brought to life by the male narrator. I couldn’t stop listening once I started. I didn’t much care for the female narrator’s reading but am not sure if that entirely due to the fact that I found the daughter’s chapters to be an unwelcome interruption when I just wanted to stick with Helen and Paul’s journey. The ending was… not good. There was such build up to the final confrontation and it fell flat once it happened. Again, I’m not sure if it was due to it being from the daughter’s POV (I really found her to be annoying). Overall this was a very well written novel and a great companion to the original, just perhaps, less scary.