Scribes, archivists, librarians, historians - anyone who handled the past through books

I just finished Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.
Excellent, well-written, meticulously researched, complex characters - I can't say enough good things about this book. It kept me turning pages from the beginning right to the very end.

It is about vampires, but it is not a horror novel. I managed to read it well into the night without feeling as if I needed a crucifix by my bed (unlike Stephen King's Salem's Lot : ) Completely different genre.)

If you're interested in reading it, it might be worth your while to do some background reading, to make the history easier to follow, or you can just do what I did and look it all up afterwards, although Kostova makes it pretty clear and easy to remember. This page is the most concise and helpful. There are some terrific pictures of locales visited by characters in the book that are neat to see. And don't worry, it won't give away any secrets or surprises, although it's not really that type of book anyway.

Here's the Salon review, recommending it. (Safe to read, I think.)

In many ways it is the vampiric equivalent of AS Byatt's Possession, although I don't want to wind anyone's hopes up *too* far. It *is* a first novel, and not as finely crafted or intricate as Possession but it has much the same feel.
[Side note: In an interview with Powell's Books, Kostova says: One of my favorite contemporary fiction writers is A. S. Byatt. Newcomers to her work might want to start with the bestselling novel Possession, a wonderful literary-historical detective story, and go on to her other challenging and beautifully researched novels and novellas, such as Still Life and Angels and Insects. She's a particularly good read for anyone who loves art and art history. ]

I will definitely be buying this book to add to my collection of librarian-related novels. Historians and archivists and librarians are key players in this book, and it's wonderful. It totally appeals to my superior-librarian ego. : )