Skip to main content

Review: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind is among some of the best books I've read. The story follows that of Daniel, a boy who discovers a book by Juan Carax in a place called "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books." Daniel soon finds that someone has been going around destroying Carax's books, and that his own copy of The Shadow of the Wind may be the last one remaining. It soon becomes clear that Daniel's life is very similar to that of Carax's, thirty years before.

As Daniel grows up, he falls in love with the sister of his best friend, very much as Julian had before. He also comes to own an invaluable pen supposedly owned by Victor Hugo, that Julian had at one time owned.

The book is populated with characters both likeable and unlikeable: Inspector Fumero, whose days in the secret police from the days of the Spanish Civil War still haunt him; a homeless man who soon becomes Daniel's best friend; a blind woman who was Daniel's first love; and a woman who might be the answer to the questions that the book raises. Who is the burnt-faced man who keeps hounding Daniel? What secrets does the house on Tibidabo Avenue contain? What does Fumero have to do with all this? The mystery is a haunting one, one that stays with the reader ling after one has finished it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars