‘Quite extraordinary…Kostova is a natural storyteller…She has fashioned the vampire myth into a compelling contemporary novel, a late-night page-turner.’ (San Francisco Chronicle)
Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to ‘My dear and unfortunate successor’. Her discovery plunges 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 evil hidden in the depths of history.
Winner of The Quill Award for Debut Author of the Year (2005), Elizabeth Kostova weaves magic with her words. Her novel is an adventure of monumental proportions; a captivating tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful- and utterly unforgettable.
“The strong writing is replete with weighty descriptions of exotic eastern European cities, which were hidden behind the Iron Curtain for much of my life. Who knew that Budapest was actually two cities divided by a river – Buda and Pest?!”
By Elizabeth Kostova
