Witch of portobello

This time Paulo Coelho disappointed me. I would say it was frantic effort for repeating the success. But he failed miserably in that attempt.

Witch of Portebello tells the story of Athena as perceived by others. Some say she was divine some evil. Some despised her yet some other adored her. Some were mystified by her whereas some got transpired. And in the end she was casted as witch. Athena tries hard to fill the blanks of the life but always end up missing something. The story is told by third person account involving Athena, they are her husband, her mother, her teacher, her disciple, a journalist.

If you got anything else to read this one simply can be ignored. I guess that’s states it all.

The Historian

Once in while you read a book that is supposedly a fictional work but the places and narration makes it difficult to believe its not real. Elizabeth Kostova’s Historian is such a kind.

Historian tells you the story of..Umm…well about the historians, not just any historian but world’s finest historians who are chosen by the prince Vlad Tapes A.K.A Dracula to catalogue his centuries old book and epilogue collections. But before they do that everybody has to undergo a test to prove their mettle. They are given a book all identical with just a dragon in the middle page and nothing else. They are to decipher the hidden meaning of the book. While in this journey the Prof Rossi comes to realization that Dracula is not a myth but an evil that still hunts in the dark. The story takes you through eastern Europe to Middle east then back to the happening place America. The description of kostova about the places, mainly the universities and Monasteries even more interesting and this adds to reality that blinds the fiction. There is no vampire slaughtering pictured in this book, so don’t look for one. But tell you what it would definitely create goose bumps and some sleepless nights.

Its in line with Da Vinci code and others like it.Another fine piece of literary skill. A must have in your collection.