Povjesničarka

Ten years of meticulous historical research, a lot of personal experience and trips to the countries she writes about were necessary for Elizabeth Kostova to finish her debut novel, for which she received the award for "novel in the making" while still at the University of Michigan. An erudite style, a poignant love story and a breathtaking adventure turned The Historian into a bestseller.

The complex action of this novel is set almost entirely in the areas of Eastern Europe, which have been drenched in blood and tormented by wars from the Middle Ages to the present day, so part of it takes place in Zagreb and Dubrovnik.

When a sixteen-year-old girl in her father's rich library finds a well-hidden book and a stack of yellowed letters that begin with the words "My dear and unfortunate heir", the search will begin along the most obscure paths of history, based on a fact as absurd as it is possible: Dracula, the bloodthirsty Vlad Ţepeş is alive.

The story develops simultaneously in three different periods. The first period: in the thirties of the last century, Professor Bartolomew Rossi, after his imagination and historical spirit were captured by an unusual book, went in search of Dracula. Horrible and bloody events will soon force him to give up, until twenty years later the same book is found by Paul, his student. Soon after, Rossi mysteriously disappears, and Paul and the mysterious Helen will try to solve the mystery. The third narrative sequence begins twenty years later - the former student is now a distinguished diplomat, and the fateful book was found by his daughter. Paul disappeared, leaving an incomprehensible message: "I went to find your mother." A mother who has been dead for twenty years!