MF: A main character in the novel expresses derision towards the English language, calling it "an exercise in grammar." Clearly, you're a devotee of language. Do any foreign languages fascinate you more so than English?

Elizabeth Kostova: English is my favorite language because it's my native language and because it's such a rich, complex composite I don't feel as my character does about it - she was trying to learn English as a third language.

But I love Slavic languages and French and am constantly trying to improve my language skills.

MF: With its detailed descriptions of the countries and cultures through which the characters pass, The Historian has the pacing of a classic. Are you more influenced by classic authors than contemporary?

Elizabeth Kostova: Yes. I admire a lot of contemporary literary writers very much, but for this work I turned to the Victorians.

MF: What kind of a reader are you? Avid? Sporadic?

Elizabeth Kostova: I'm always reading something. I'm kind of an undisciplined reader in that I'm always reading three or four things. I read rather slowly. I tend to read for craft and for the pleasure of language as much story. Of course I'm very busy with this book tour so this is sort of an extreme example, but I brought with me a novel by A.S. Byatt so that I could read something completely unrelated to Bram Stoker and company. I thought this would be a modest ambition, to read a little bit each night, and I've been on tour for weeks now and have read about eight pages (laughs).

MF: I understand you're planning another historical novel. Any hints at the subject?

Elizabeth Kostova: I actually haven't been talking about the exact subject because it seems so raw still, and I'm a little afraid of jinxing it. It does involve both history, a very different topic by the way, and a couple of contemporary stories again.

When I sold The Historian and wanted to jump right away into a new novel, I promised myself that I would write a novel that didn't involve any research, since I had spent so much time in libraries writing the last one. I thought I would write a novel about people's relationships and places I knew well. Yet here I find myself writing this novel that's going to take so much research I can hardly stand it. I must find something in it, however. It's just so enjoyable poking around in the past.