Book Review
Sep. 30th, 2018 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
This first book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books trilogy takes place in post-civil war Barcelona and centers around a young man named Daniel whose mother died in the aftermath of the war and whose father runs a small bookshop. When Daniel is eleven, his father takes him to a hidden library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where the city's rare books dealers look after a collection of obscure and forgotten books. Here Daniel discovers a novel called The Shadow of the Wind, written by a mysterious man named Julian Carax who died in the beginning of the civil war. Daniel falls in love with the book and begins a years-long quest to find out more about the author and his work. Along the way Daniel finds and loses love and friendship and becomes increasingly caught up in dangerous intrigues and secrets.
I found The Shadow of the Wind incredibly compelling and beautifully written, and I stayed up too late reading it on more than one occasion. As a clever combination of noir and bildungsroman, the plot has many twists and turns and a few true surprises, but it never feels contrived or manipulative. The characters are very sympathetic and always interesting. I particularly like the way Riuz Zafon draws on certain archetypes but the builds his characters out into something more. The sinister crooked cop, femme fatale, and resourceful fixer are all here, but that's not all they are. The author also wonderfully brings Barcelona to life - I especially enjoyed all the descriptions of light in the city. I've never been, but I now feel like I know the place.
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
This first book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books trilogy takes place in post-civil war Barcelona and centers around a young man named Daniel whose mother died in the aftermath of the war and whose father runs a small bookshop. When Daniel is eleven, his father takes him to a hidden library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where the city's rare books dealers look after a collection of obscure and forgotten books. Here Daniel discovers a novel called The Shadow of the Wind, written by a mysterious man named Julian Carax who died in the beginning of the civil war. Daniel falls in love with the book and begins a years-long quest to find out more about the author and his work. Along the way Daniel finds and loses love and friendship and becomes increasingly caught up in dangerous intrigues and secrets.
I found The Shadow of the Wind incredibly compelling and beautifully written, and I stayed up too late reading it on more than one occasion. As a clever combination of noir and bildungsroman, the plot has many twists and turns and a few true surprises, but it never feels contrived or manipulative. The characters are very sympathetic and always interesting. I particularly like the way Riuz Zafon draws on certain archetypes but the builds his characters out into something more. The sinister crooked cop, femme fatale, and resourceful fixer are all here, but that's not all they are. The author also wonderfully brings Barcelona to life - I especially enjoyed all the descriptions of light in the city. I've never been, but I now feel like I know the place.
