Read This #13 - The Shadow of the Wind

We all have our little favorites, don't we?

I had this novel by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon forced on me by an extremely enthusiastic and aggressive bookstore employee about a year ago. While my first instinct was to turn and run, a quick glance at the book jacket gave me some reason to feel hope. The novel was about books.

Best described as a Gothic novel, with its rich visual imagery and textures (lots of dark shadows and creaking staircases and the like), the story is set in Barcelona, just a few years after the Spanish Civil War.

The City is still very much shrouded in secrets and a lingering shame. This setting is very important. The Spanish Civil War was unique because it was almost entirely based on political ideologies, turning brother against brother, as opposed to being a territorial dispute between regions or countries. The effect it had on the people of Spain was profound - you can still see that terrible angst and fragmentation in the paintings of Dali and Picasso from that period. It tore families and friendships apart.

The story is written from the point of view of a boy still mourning the recent loss of his mother. His father is a bookseller and in an effort to console his son, he takes him to a very mysterious place - the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

The boy, Daniel, is allowed to choose one book to take home, or rather, it chooses him. It's called "Shadow of the Wind" and is by an unknown author named Julian Carax. He loves the book, and searches for other titles by the same author. However, he realizes someone else is systematically destroying every book that Carax has ever written and that he might possess the last remaining copy!

Soon he is pulled into a dark world of mystery and murder.

Aside from the great myriad of twists and turns of plot throughout this novel, it is also full of great characters, including one of my favorites, Fermin Romero De Torres, a sidekick who is every bit as loyal and humorous as his great literary predecessor, Sancho Panza.

Definitely one of the most satisfying and sumptuous reads I have had in some time.