The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: A Forgotten Book, a Burned Face and the Aldaya Family’s Secrets
In Barcelona, a ten-year-old boy is taken by his father to a secret library of forgotten books and told to choose one. He picks The Shadow of the Wind, by a certain Julián Carax. Soon someone appears who wants that very copy, in order to burn it.
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964–2020)
Title: The Shadow of the Wind (2001), The Cemetery of Forgotten Books 1
Format: English paperback (Orion), translated by Lucia Graves
Genre: Literary mystery
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/1474609880 (ASIN 1474609880)
The Cemetery of Forgotten Books
The boy, Daniel, receives a gift he will never forget: his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and lets him choose one book, which he must look after. Soon a stranger wants the same copy. When the boy learns that the man intends to burn it to ashes, he hesitates. The author wrote other books, and they all seem to share the same fate: destruction. Few know why, but the boy decides to guard his copy like gold.
The Aldaya Family
The Aldayas have money and power, and over the years their deeds are not forgotten. The family’s entanglement in all kinds of problems and mysteries slowly erodes its honour: secret marriages, relationships that vanish, children who reappear years after their birth. There is every kind of plot and suspense, and none of it leaves the reader indifferent.
Julián Carax
At the centre of it all is Julián Carax, author of The Shadow of the Wind. The novel tells the story of a family in decline and of its friends and relations, who slowly age and fall into oblivion, while a burned, helpless face devotes its last efforts to burning Carax’s books.
Barcelona After the War
The novel opens in 1945, in a grey, hungry Barcelona still marked by the Spanish Civil War and the repression that followed. Daniel’s father runs a second-hand bookshop, and as Daniel grows up and investigates the mystery of Julián Carax, the city itself becomes a character: its narrow streets, crumbling mansions, cafes and cemeteries are described with a gothic intensity that has made the book a favourite of literary tourists.
Fermín and Fumero
Two characters stand out. Fermín Romero de Torres, a former political prisoner whom Daniel rescues from the streets and who comes to work in the bookshop, is one of the great comic creations of modern Spanish fiction, eloquent, irreverent and unexpectedly brave. Against him stands Inspector Fumero, a sadistic police officer whose career has thrived on the violence of the regime, and whose shadow hangs over the whole story.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Ruiz Zafón (1964–2020) was born in Barcelona and worked in advertising before writing novels for young readers. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked on screenplays. The Shadow of the Wind, published in 2001, became one of the most successful Spanish novels of recent decades, translated into dozens of languages. Lucia Graves, daughter of the poet Robert Graves, translated it into English. Ruiz Zafón died of cancer in 2020.
Four Novels, One Labyrinth
The novel opens a cycle of four, followed by The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven and The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Each can be read on its own, and the author said they could be entered in any order, like a labyrinth with several doors.
Who Will Enjoy It
Lovers of books about books, gothic mysteries and old-fashioned storytelling on a grand scale.
Once started, it is very hard to put down.
Why Read It
A gothic mystery and a love letter to books and to Barcelona, and the first of four novels set around the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.
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