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. In those few
quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is
her birthright - a hunt for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the
medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the
Dracula myth. Deciphering obscure signs and hidden texts, reading
codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions, and
evading terrifying adversaries, one woman comes ever closer to the
secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition
of evil. Elizabeth Kostova''s debut 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.
關於作者:
Elizabeth Kostova graduated from Yale and holds an MFA from
the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award for the
Novel-in-Progress.