Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I’ve just finished reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The premise is quite unusual, something of a mainstream novel but with a mystery underlying it. The young protagonist, Daniel is still quite a young boy when his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There he chooses a book entitled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. Carax was neither a very popular nor a successful author. Only ninety copies of The Shadow... was sold in Spain. Carax only wrote eight books during his lifetime. As Daniel grows to be a young adult he finds that someone is buying every copy he can find and burning them. A strange shadowy man who limps follows our young protagonist and offers to buy the book. This, I think, is a book which any book lover would find fascinating. Certainly it begins with an enticing premise.

Here’s a quote as Daniel’s father tells his son about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books: "This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. 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 a person runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. The place was already ancient when my father brought me here for the first time, many years ago. Perhaps as old as the city itself. Nobody knows for certain how long it has existed, or who created it. I will tell you what my father told me, though. When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend. Now they have only us, Daniel. Do you think you will be able to keep such a secret?"

The author is being compared to Perez-Reverte, Eco, Paul Auster, Marquez. The plot is complex and more than a bit sad. Daniel’s copy of Carax’s book may be the last one in existence. What are the dark secrets behind this tale of Barcelona in the mid-fifties?