Nxg

SUPERNATURAL Deborah Harkness’s first “enchanting” novel is a deviation from the usual vampire/witch love story. It’s refreshing! VISHWADHA CHANDER

Title: A Discovery of Witches

Author: Deborah Harkness

Publisher: Hachette India

Price: Rs. 499

Dr. Diana Bishop wants nothing to do with magic and sorcery. She is of witch descent, but has carefully stayed away from that world. In the process of her research, she stumbles upon a leather-bound volume, which to a historian like herself will not stand out from the hundred others at the Oxford’s Bodleian Library. But this was going to be different.

Conflicts abound

Diana had discovered the Ashmole 782, a powerful enchanted manuscript, capable of not only revealing all her secrets but also begins a war, and she is the target. As she tries to come to terms with her reality, the legacy of her family, the intensity of what she has started, she ends up falling in love with Mathew Clairmont, a 1500 year old vampire and geneticist…An alliance between a witch and a vampire is banned by the Congregation, a body that dictates the code of conduct for witches, daemons and vampires. Nevertheless, the two are determined to finish what she started by ensuring the Ashmole 782 dies notby falling into the hands of dark forces.

The novel is a page-turner and goes beyond the stereo-typed vampire/witch love story. Elements of adventure, romance, sorcery, science and magic equally dominate the narrative. A Discovery of Witches is the first book in the All Soul’s Trilogy, the second, slated to be in book stores by 2012.

Vishwadha is a II year BMS student at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.

Popularity: 1% [?]