Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s 2001 caper The Shadow of the Wind is a story of forbidden love and exile stretching between the Spanish Civil War to 1960’s Barcelona. Utilizing a pastiche of styles and techniques, Zafón demonstrates an immense respect for the stately opulence of Gothic Victorianism mixed with the elaborately plotted whodunnits and mysteries of the hard-case crime files from the 1950’s.
The story is of young Daniel Sempere the son of a local bookseller who happens to come into possession of a novel by increasingly obscure Spanish author Julián Carax.
Falling in love with the book immediately, young Daniel quickly searches out more from the enigmatically absent author only to discover that his books are being systematically removed and destroyed from bookstores and libraries.
What follows is a torrent of murder, mystery, love, lust, and the excavation of a past that has struggled to be buried for decades–all of which set beneath the glow of a Barcelonian winter.
I’m in awe of Zafón’s prose. The intricacy and originality of the story is astounding, and his style is a beautiful combination of the mathematical-calculatory mystery of Borges mixed with the playful magic of García Márquez.
Linguistically speaking, Zafón is the perfect amalgam of complex prosaic Victorianism with a dash of the contemporary thriller.
The Shadow of the Wind is a masterpiece. Go out and get it now. It won’t disappoint.
Stars = 5/5
Great review! I loved this book– one of my favorites. I didn’t like the second one as much though
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Haven’t gotten to it yet, but I’m sure I will. Thanks for reading!
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There’s a second one?
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There are three. One’s a sequel and another a prequel.
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I read this when I was in college some 6 years ago. My favorite Zafón novel 🙂
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This book seems interesting and I didn’t know nothing about this author before your review. Maybe I’ll do a review of this title in the future too. Great review. See you!
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This has been one of my top ten for a while now. He revisits the same story in his other two books I’ve read; not quite as good. I hope he’ll write something new (and different) soon.
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One of my favourite books of his, second only to Angel’s Game – my favourite book of all time!
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I’ll have to read it!
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Read this last summer. I loved it but for some reason, I found it really spooky.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this one, especially the atmosphere he created of Barcelona. i’ve been lucky enough to visit the city a few times so loved the ability to retrace my steps through those streets, Oddly however, though I have the sequel I’ve not felt compelled to read it…
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Great review. I loved this book too
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Completely agree! Read this sometime last year and loved it! Book about a book, can it get any better?
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I really loved this book too when I read it about 5 years ago. I’m feeling pretty nostalgic at the moment so I think I’ll put it on my re-read pile – thanks for reminding me about it!
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I remember Read bringing this up during Fireside and will now definitely acquire it. Speaking of Fireside, are you still interested in meeting? Take care!
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Absolutely! What’s going on? What are your thoughts?
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I very much like the first, on the other hand, the second I found it bland.
It’s funny because many people were delighted with the first, but disenchanted with the second.
In my opinion, the reason was that Zanón was pressured by publishers to end the book on the designated date, for what did not give enough time to work with the plot and characters.
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Wow!!! This sounds great!!
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Hey fellow book lover! Great review! I’ll have to add this author to my (somewhat huge!) list! It sounds like it has it all, and a bit of mystery is always a good thing. Thanks!
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