Books with similar writing style to Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Historian'?

[Mark R]

I'm mostly asking this for a friend, though I'm interested myself. Does anyone know of any?

I'm mainly talking about the scenes that were from the main character's perspective, not her father's - while the book had its share of flaws IMO, those were done extremely well.

I suppose part of the atmosphere created in the book would be the manner in which things are described, part of it the 'travel writing' element of it and the constantly changing location, part of it the first-person perspective. I don't think all of that would necessarily need to be there for it to be similar, though.

I've done a few Google searches, but found nothing. Any suggestions?

[jon1jt]

i haven't read the book, but i plan to get to it one day. i heard an interview on NPR with Kostova when the book came out and was really impressed with her. she spent eight years writing and researching and sold it for millions to a publisher, who spent a ton of money marketing it. has anyone read it and what do you think? the book is huge, over 700 pages easy. thanks! sorry i'm off topic here, i just haven't seen anything on her in here. thanks!

[Logos]

Hi Mark, welcome to the site :)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'similar writing style'? (A friend is borrowing my copy right now so can't make any specific references... ) but (I think) there were three different first person narrators but I suppose you could say the 'main' one is the one the book opens with without going into too much detail.. :D

I thought there were many impressive elements to the novel as a first publication; extensive historical background/setting and well-developed characters avoiding the Hollywoodized overdone 'Dracula' topic.

However, the number of flash-backs and flash-forwards to me was tedious at times and the epistolary style bloated with (sometimes) repetitive information and *pages* of italicised text got on my nerves to the point where I skipped over parts.

I would say that Arthur Phillip's (http://www.amazon.ca/Egyptologist-Novel-Arthur-Phillips/dp/1400062500/sr=1-2/qid=1167347840/ref=sr_1_2/701-4287543-9997133?ie=UTF8&s=books) The Egyptologist is 'similar' in overall style, and dare I say, even better, in that you have a great historical epistolary work of fiction with a refreshing take on a sometimes done-to-death topic, plus the guy's got a great sense of humour (Trilipush!) :p