Elizabeth Kostova Livres

From the #1 bestselling author of The Historian comes an engrossing novel that spans the past and the present and unearths the dark secrets of Bulgaria, a beautiful and haunted country. A young American woman, Alexandra Boyd, has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will salve the wounds left by the loss of her beloved brother. Soon after arriving in this elegant East European city, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the hinged lid, she discovers that she is holding an urn filled with human ashes. As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return this precious item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a talented musician who was shattered by oppression and she will find out all too quickly that this knowledge is fraught with its own danger. Kostova's new novel is a tale of immense scope that delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of this mysterious country. Suspenseful and beautifully written, it explores the power of stories, the pull of the past, and the hope and meaning that can sometimes be found in the aftermath of loss.

For centuries, the story of Dracula has captured the imagination of readers and storytellers alike. Kostova's breathtaking first novel, ten years in the writing, is an accomplished retelling of this ancient tale. "The story that follows is one I never intended to commit to paper.. As an historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it." With these words, a nameless narrator unfolds a story that began 30 years earlier. Late one night in 1972, as a 16-year-old girl, she discovers a mysterious book and a sheaf of letters in her father's library -- a discovery that will have dreadful and far-reaching consequences, and will send her on a journey of mind-boggling danger. While seeking clues to the secrets of her father's past and her mother's puzzling disappearance, she follows a trail from London to Istanbul to Budapest and beyond, and learns that the letters in her possession provide a link to one of the world's darkest and most intoxicating figures. Generation after generation, the legend of Dracula has enticed and eluded both historians and opportunists alike. Now a young girl undertakes the same search that ended in the death and defilement of so many others -- in an attempt to save her father from an unspeakable fate.

Andrew Marlow, a dedicated psychiatrist, has his orderly life disrupted when he becomes the therapist for the troubled painter Robert Oliver, who refuses to communicate. Marlow's quest to uncover Oliver's secret leads him through the lives of women connected to Oliver and into the depths of French Impressionism, exploring themes of obsession and the enduring power of art.

* The highly anticipated new novel by the author of the international bestseller THE HISTORIAN.

Notte. Brividi. Una ragazzina scopre nella biblioteca paterna un fascio di lettere misteriose e un libro in cui domina una raffigurazione di un drago, sopra la misteriosa scritta "Drakulya". È l'atto di inizio di una ricerca che si era già svolta in passato e torna a risvegliare uno spettro che da sempre si aggira per l'Europa e che si nasconde dietro la storia che tutti noi conosciamo. Una caccia spietata alla ricerca di un ente soprannaturale che da secoli ossessiona gli uomini, la leggenda di Dracula, il re dei vampiri. Piani temporali e storici si intrecciano, mentre padre e figlia, i protagonisti di questa affannosa ricerca di un Graal in forma umana (sovrumana, anzi...), percorrono i pertugi di una vicenda nascosta agli occhi dei profani, in cui si addensano ombre e demoni, vicende familiari e inattese svolte, fino a una serie di rivelazioni che sconvolgono la percezione della realtà.