by Danielle Trussoni
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2020
368 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.
It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta "Bert" Monte receives a letter addressed to "Countess Alberta Montebianco" at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she's inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family's past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.
At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink.
But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.
"Trussoni plausibly and expertly combines an intense, darkly gothic narrative with elements of mystery, the paranormal, and legendary tales. This odyssey of monsters and family will enrapture readers." - Publishers Weekly
"Scientific speculation seeps into the world of the eerie in Trussoni's lush thriller...an opulently romantic horror tale, with a plucky, if not always sensible, heroine." - Kirkus Reviews
"[T]he story will sweep readers up in the awe and wonder, asking us to examine our own complicated ancestry...The rags-to-riches theme paired with long-buried secrets and a claustrophobic setting in which monsters can hide in plain sight makes this title appealing to a wide range of readers." - Library Journal
"The intermingling of science, legend, and genealogy make for a truly captivating tale of literary horror." - Booklist
"Danielle Trussoni's The Ancestor is a lushly written, dream-like modern gothic with as many dark turns and twists as the Montebianco family tree has branches. Welcome to the family." - Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World
"A surprise inheritance, remote castle in the Alps, and a cursed family bloodline? Yes, please! The Ancestor is a gloriously modern Gothic novel, blending mythic monsters with modern science in ways that gave me a thrill. Danielle Trussoni has written one hell of a tale." - Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling
"The Ancestor is a wonderful shape-shifter of a novel. One minute you'll suppose you're in a haunted house: think Shirley Jackson. The next, you're transported into the sort of world Mary Shelley might have created for Frankenstein. Danielle Trussoni is an immensely gifted literary descendant of both storytellers — they are among her ancestors — which is one of the many reasons why I savor her work so very much." - Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and The Red Lotus
This information about The Ancestor was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of the supernatural thrillers Angelology and Angelopolis. She currently writers the Horror column for the New York Times Book Review and has recently served as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Trussoni holds an MFA in Fiction from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won the Michener-Copernicus Society of America award. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family and her pug Fly.
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