I have this bad habit of not really relating to stories that are beloved by many others. Here is another example of a book that was highly recommended to me but which I simply couldn’t connect to.

This is now one of my all time favorite books! I started reading it a few weeks ago and I was a little slow getting in to it but once I did, I could not put it down.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona in 1964. He won the Premio Edebe for his first novel, “El Príncipe de la Niebla” (Prince of the Mists). “The Shadow of the Wind” is his first novel for adults, was first published in Spain in 2001 and is set in Zafón’s home city. The book opens in the summer of 1945, only six years after the Spanish Civil War ended, and focuses on Daniel Sempere. Daniel’s father runs a bookshop specializing in rare and second-hand editions, while the pair live in a bookshop directly above it. Daniels’s mother died from cholera shortly after the Civil War, and was buried on his fourth birthday.

Approaching his eleventh birthday, Daniel’s father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books : a mysterious and secret place, it is a sanctuary for the protection of obscure and endangered books. When a bookshop or library closes, those titles in danger of disappearing are brought to the Cemetery by its guardians. No-one knows how long the Cemetery has been there, or who founded it. However, all those on their first visit there are allowed to ‘adopt’ a book – to protect it and ensure it stays alive. Daniel stumbles across and chooses a book called “The Shadow of the Wind” by Julian Caráx – an author and a title unfamiliar to him. It captures his imagination so completely that he is determined to read more of Caráx’s book. Unfortunately, not only are his books in short supply, but also Caráx himself proves to be something of a mystery.

Daniel’s father can only supply a few answers about the author and the book, but Gustavo Barcelo – one of his father’s friends – tells Daniel he has the only copy of “The Shadow of the Wind” in existence. Daniel learns more about Caráx from Clara, Gustavo’s blind and orphaned niece. Clara’s father, a lawyer close to the Catalan President, had been killed by Javier Fumero at Montjuïc Castle during the war. Clara’s mother has subsequently died from a broken heart. Fumero remains a feared man throughout the city, though was little more than a hired assassin during the war. He fought for every side at some point, siding with the winners after the fall of Barcelona and joining the police force. Clara, in her early twenties when she first meets Daniel, was introduced to Caráx by her tutor, Monsieur Rocquefort. Like Daniel, he only owned one of Caráx’s novels and was desperate to read more of them. He scoured the bookshops of Paris, where Caráx was based at the time – but found nothing further. In 1936, rumors reached him that Caráx had died – some said in a duel in Paris, others that he died in dire straits in Barcelona. Either way, it appears he had been buried in an unmarked grave.

While Daniel is able to pick up scraps of information about the author from a variety of sources, his most loyal ally in Fermín Romero de Torres. Fermín is living on the streets when Daniel first meets him, though he finally comes to work at the bookshop. He is a hugely entertaining free-thinker, who has a fantastic turn of phrase, a strong distaste for both Franco and Inspector Fumero and an eye for the ladies. Unfortunately, the pair realise there are others also interested in Caráx. Barcelo had earlier told Daniel of a man seeking to burn all copies of Caráx’s books. He later learns that this man is travelling by the name ‘Laín Coubert’ – an alias used in Caráx’s “Shadow of the Wind” by the Devil himself. He also realises he is being followed by the very same individual…

I didn’t know a great deal about this book when I started reading it, but I was hooked within ten pages. Zafón hasn’t so much written a novel as crafted one. Rather than following a tired formula and filling his books with clichés, his ability to actually tell a story is clear. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a book so much, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Zafón’s work.

An enjoyable, old school kind of read… I enjoyed the first half much more than the second (and the final quarter not at all), though the author’s (and, I guess, translator’s) unaffected and witty style saw me out…

Not for everyone.

This is lovely and includes everything that a good book should include. It shows up every human emotion. Great thing.

I thought it t’was a fantabulous read… I couldn’t put it down. Gobble Gobble Gobble. A cliff-hanger, a fantasy, and a story about bibliphiles. Who could ask for more?

I bought this because I’d read good things about it. It started out promisingly, but things fell apart halfway through. I agree that this is a very predictable read, and a little too long-winded at times. Best for people who have plenty of patience when it comes to reading.

This has been one of the best reads I’ve had so far this year. The page count is almost 500 and yet I never felt the length while reading, as I was caught up in the drama, humour, emotion and thoughts of the character. Zafon offers readers the sort of story-telling that has been disappointingly absent from much of the so-called “literary fiction”.

I too, was hooked by the first line of this book. Started reading it on vacation and am now on page 150 or so. And so far, it is an excellent book.

Just starting this – heard very good things so quite excited.

Not terribly inventive or novel, but has a beautiful style and an entertaining, albeit predictable, plot. (3/13/05)