The Shadow of the Wind
I’m sucked right in from the start, for Carlos Ruis Zafon knows how to lure the reader, the booklover hook, line and sinker. It’s with the idea of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books:
“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”
Daniel, 10, is taken to this cemetery by his father, a bookseller, who tells him that the first time someone visits this place, he must pick a book and adopt it. So Daniel wanders and eventually finds a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. A book that he devours, but later finds is an extremely rare copy, for there are few, if any, of Carax’s books left around. A man with leathered skin, smelling of burnt paper and going by the name of one of Carax’s characters has been rumoured to be burning all of these books. Daniel can’t help but be intrigued by this Carax, everything about him seems to be shrouded in mystery. Who is this man? Why is he burning all these books? What happened to Carax?
With the help of jack-of-all-trades Fermín Romero de Torres, Daniel chases the shadows that surrounds Carax’s life, which he begins to realise parallels his own.
I love books about books, so I quite liked reading this one. As a mystery though, it didn’t quite work that well as there was a bit too much of a back and forth between past and present as the mystery unraveled, as different characters explain what happened. Some of the translation also seemed a bit clunky and distracts the reader from the story. But Zafon made great use of the setting (1940s-50s Barcelona – and I kind of love Spain) and threw in enough romance and melodrama to result it in a fun read – just not a fantastic one.
This is my third read for the RIP V Challenge – I didn’t borrow this book specifically for the challenge, but realised that, with its air of mystery and elements of a gothic romance, it fits this challenge pretty well.
I liked the idea of this one, and the bookish bits certainly were wonderfully indulgent. However, I thought it a little too melodramatic by the end. Caught myself rolling my eyes a few times. Glad it worked for ya overall!
Heh guess I enjoy quite a bit of melodrama!
I read this book last year and really enjoyed it. Y ou are right about books for “booklovers” lol.. so true!
Thanks for stopping by, deslily!
I have owned this book for quite some time and still haven’t managed to read it. I have his newer book, too, so I really should get cracking!!
I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up his second book! Haven’t really seen very much in praise of it (or maybe I’ve not been looking in the right places), so we’ll see…..