The Historian, as indicated in the title tells the story of a young girl - the narrator. Her life changes after she has picked up an old volume and an envelope of yellowing papers from the top shelves of his father’s library. Her mother, according to his father was died when she was a baby, but the truth is not true.

The story line take off pretty quickly and it set you to start the journey of more page-turning. If you really indulge in reading it, you will come to realise that you thought you were in the story, the places were so vividly describe, you feel you are in it!

The chronicle set in many places of the world but mainly in Istanbul, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It relate back to many history such as Ottoman and Constantinople period and many more. Culture, buildings, history were all describe in the book.

The tale evolves around a dragon crafted book. It is about Drakulya, not the Bram Stoker version – bloodsucker – Dracula, but of Vlad Ţepeş – the ‘Impaler’ of Wallachia. Drakulya was the Latin root from dragon or evil. Curiosity brings tragedy in this context. Probing for the root of the book caused the disappearance of Professor Rossi, professor for narrator’s father, leading to a long journey or searching, searching and searching.

The story is a blend of facts and fictions, more like Dan Brown. But Elizabath Kostova has her own style of story telling. The ending was a bit abrupt that set the reader to crave for more. Like many other stories, the main characters are safe from many dangerous circumstances. Never did I know that Bulgarian cultural idiosyncrasy, which they shook their heads in agreement and nodded in disagreement. What a finding! Worth to read, you will be fascinated by the imaginary and the facts.