"I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time. It was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over Rambla de Santa Monica in a wreath of liquid copper..." With these words Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Spanish writer born in Barcelona, starts
The shadow of the wind, the most successful Spanish novel ever, which has sold seven million copies worldwide. It has been translated into over forty languages, received numerous international awards and has been on the bestseller lists of several countries for more than four years.
According to a
Living Spain's review, this novel represents "a wonderful portrait of Barcelona - not the sunny, culture rich and fun loving city break destination that most visitors know - but a shadowy, at times dark and atmospheric picture of the city centre streets in the years following the Spanish Civil War." Some sort of a guide to discover an ancient Barcelona full of hidden secrets.
As a matter of fact, turning over the pages of this intriguing book, the enigmatic plot opens inside the maze of Barri Gothic, the most mysterious neighbourhood of the city, among narrow streets and damp and badly illuminated alleys.
It is inside the Barri Gothic iteself, where the time has never passed, that the author images the Cemetery of Forgotten Books: "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". It is here where a used bookstore owner took his not quite 11-year-old son, Daniel Sempere, the protagonist, one afternoon in 1945: "You mustn't tell anyone what you're about to see today", he says to his son.
They wander through narrow winding streets, then finally
stop before "a large door of carved wood, blackened by time and humidity. Before us loomed what to my eyes seemed thecarcass of a palace, a place of echoes and shadows." Inside "a labyrinth of passageways and crammed bookshelves rose from base to pinnacle like a beehive woven with tunnels, steps, platforms, and bridges that presaged an immense library of seemingly impossible geometry."
Daniel's father tells him that
"according to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive." Daniel chooses, or perhaps is chosen by , "The Shadow of the Wind," by Julian Carax.
This mysterious and cursed book will change the course of his life and force him to find a way out from a labyrinth of intrigues that have been hidden inside the obscure soul of the city. As the story goes on and the plot resolves itself, the city shows itself, too, passing from dark little streets to quiet and sunny large squares.
Sitting on a bench in front of the Cathedral, we find Daniel, few pages before beginning his uphill path to the discovery of the truth.
And, once again, plot and city overlap: in fact, the solution of the whole mystery is bound to an old big house, Villa Aldaya, on the top of Tibidabo Hill.
An incredible novel that reveals a Barcelona of past times, perhaps less tourist than the present one, but maybe more intriguing and fascinating.
And, "if you thought the gothic novel died with the 19th century, this will change your mind in Zafon's hands, every scene seems to come from an early Orson Wells movie one gorgeous read" (STEPHEN KING)
About the article
Links
Zafon on Wikipedia
Reviews Summary:
Daily Telegraph
L'Express
The Guardian
The Observer
San Francisco Chronicle
Biography
Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona in 1964 and began his
publishing career by writing novels for young adults. In 1993, he won
the Edebé Children's Literature Award for his first book, El príncipe
de la niebla. His debut in adult fiction, The Shadow of the Wind, spent
more than a year on the Spanish bestseller list, much of the time at
No. 1, and has been published in more than 20 countries.
The author currently lives in Los Angeles.
Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group USA
The shadow of the wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
hardcover 496 pages
Penguin Press HC
list price $ 24,95
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