The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Another book I discovered while browsing a local book retail giant, The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is a mysterious sweeping tale that lifts it's reader up and into the stratosphere and sets them gently down into the heart of windy Barcelona in the 1940s and 1950s.
I read the book description on the back cover, and not clearly knowing if the story was magical or supernatural, I read the first few pages and was hooked. It turns out the book is neither magical or supernatural in the literal sense. This novel is a book-lovers book, it exudes art, expression, and story telling to a very high degree. It honors the novel.
The book begins with the protagonist, 10 year old Daniel Siempre, entering The Cemetery Of Forgotten Books with his father. The Cemetery Of Forgotten Books is a right of passage in the world of book-lovers and is very exclusive. Once inducted, you may pick one book and must promise to keep and cherish the book for life. Daniel's father himself is a bookseller and rare book dealer, and the cemetery is a very special place for the father and son. The book Daniel selects is titled The Shadow Of The Wind written by a man named Julian Carax. Daniel is completely consumed by the book and it sets off a series of events that will dramatically change his life. In a striking moment, Daniel peers out his bedroom window and observes a dark stranger smoking a cigarette underneath a streetlight watching him. The moment duplicates a scene that Daniel has just read in the book, and in that book the man is the Devil.
Soon Daniel becomes determined to find out everything he can about the author. He learns that he may have the last book by Carax and all the others have been systematically destroyed. Daniel's quest puts him neck deep in a dark and haunting past of Carax. Daniel is thrust into the tragic menagerie of what he thinks is Carax's past, but is actually the present. The story bobs and weaves and circles. It covers nearly a decade. It starts mysterious and ominous then shifts quickly to fun to intense and back again, always changing, but moving forward. It's a mystery, it's a coming of age story, a love story, a tragedy, It is all encompassing. I think that may be it's downfall. And at moments the writing is absolutely stunning. The supporting cast of characters from Daniel's elder cohort Fermin to the villainous Fumero, add nice wrinkles to the layers of the discovered past. Maybe it's too good, too perfect? It's nearly flawless but it's predictable! For all its twists and turns and excitement, I saw it coming. Daniel's life mirrors too closely Carax's. It's a really good book but there was something missing for me. Too cliche perhaps? The book was translated from Spanish to English. I think I've read two other translated books, both translated from Russian: The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which was amazing, and Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenk, which had a great story line but the writing felt uninspired. Perhaps there was something lost in translation, could that be the case here?. Although The Shadow Of The Wind is very well written, I felt a little empty, I can't quite put my finger on it. I would still definitely recommend it. The author has released a second novel, a prequel of sorts, an accompanying novel again set in the shadowy underworld of Barcelona titled The Angel's Game. I'll give it a shot eventually.
Next is Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell
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