num_pages: 26
description: "To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history..."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.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's 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.An unabridged production on 22 CDs (26 hours, 6 minutes).
language: English
title: The Historian
titlecomplete: The Historian (Audiobook on 22 CDs)
characters: Anton Stoichev, Evá Orbán, Bartholomew Rossi, Turgut Bora, Vlad III, Helen Rossi, Stephen Barley, ____ Getzi, Hugh James, Paul Ross
genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Thriller, Gothic, Horror, Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Vampires, Paranormal
ratings_count: 261972
places: Amsterdam, Netherlands, Hungary, England, Oxford University, Oxford, England, Budapest, Turkey, Istanbul
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: International Horror Guild Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Hopwood Award
category: Novel in-progress, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Book Sense Book of the Year Award
category: Best Adult Fiction, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: The Quill Award
category: Debut Author of the Year, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Lord Ruthven Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Books on Tape