The Historian
- Nov 1, 2025
- 1 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2025
Pages: 668 📖
Year Published: 2005 🕰️
Days to Complete: 25
Author:
Elizabeth Kostova was born in Connecticut and raised in Tennessee. She is well-educated having earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University and master's degree of fine arts from the University of Michigan. Her interest in Bulgarian culture started as a child and she remains an activist for Bulgarian writers. She co-founded the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation to benefit Bulgarian writers and to assist English writers to travel to Bulgaria.
Three words to describe this read:
Worldly- The characters over the course of this book travel more than most people do in their entire lives. The fact that many of the destinations were not incredibly popular vacation spots (at least in the US), such as Romania and Bulgaria, made it even more fun and adventurous.
Spooky- I found this to be a perfect Halloween book with its eerie elements and vampire theme. The whole dark academia vibe was great and exactly what I was looking to experience during this season.
Suspenseful- The questions start as soon as you pick up the book and they hardly begin to be answered until the last 100 pages of the book.
Quote:
"It was strange, I reflected, as we went out into the golden evening of the Byzantine streets, that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one's life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy."
This quote felt like a good reminder that life can't always be easy, but there is always joy to find and silver linings to notice.
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