Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rating: 5/5 stars
Synopsis: Barcelona, 1945: A city
slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an
antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds
solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one
Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he
makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying
every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the
last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent
quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic
story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
My Thoughts:
A boy, a book and a
writer – this is the Holy Trinity of The
Shadow of the Wind. The boy longs to untangle the yarns of a life that
seems to be gone and past. He doesn’t expect to wake Laín Coubert with his
meddling. He is none other than the Devil in the beloved book.
I don’t remember ever
reading a novel before that was set in Spain, but despite the writer’s clear
efforts to enchant me with the enigmatic representation of Barcelona I loved
the Shadow of the Wind for something
else: the characterization. Now, many would argue that the city itself was a
character in this case, but somehow it wasn’t the component that animated the
whole book for me. There were people on these pages that could have easily
stepped off them. You know those books that you only come across once in a while,
in which you find protagonists and secondary characters you feel you have known
your entire life? Well, this is one of those pieces of writing. (God, I wish I
had a friend like Fermín Romero de Torres).
I admired Zafón’s choice
to hide so many parallels between Daniel and Julián in the book. They made me
confused, but in a good way, because thanks to them I was dying to get to know
the nature of the connection between the youth and the writer.
I was also pleased with
the deliciously gothic locations (especially one) Zafón created; although not
very original, it gave just the right milieu to parts of the tale. I’m usually easily
creeped out by ghost stories and there was one certain part where I got the
goosebumps and it was so so good.
What I wasn’t quite happy
with, was the ending, because I expected something else, something more
mysterious, something more on the magical realism side of things perhaps – and
that kind of closure I didn’t get. The only other thing that bugged me about
the Shadow of the Wind was that
sometimes the narrative just didn’t seem right: you can read recollections of
characters of certain events that they couldn’t have possibly witnessed. But
well, it’s just a ’technical’ issue I happened to notice, it didn’t really kept
me from enjoying the story.
All in all, The Shadow of
the Wind is a wonderful novel and is totally worth the time it takes to read
it.
