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The Shadow of the Wind (El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves (Translator)

4.17 · rating details · 63,793 ratings · 9,100 reviews

bBarnes Noble Discover Great New Writers/bbrIn the postwar calm of 1945 Barcelona, ten-year-old Daniel Sempere awakes from a nightmare and, to his horror, realizes that he can no longer remember the face of his deceased mother. In an effort to divert his son's attention from this sharply felt fear and loss, his father, a rare-book dealer, first swears Daniel to secrecy, ...more

Compact Disc, 1 pages

Published January 13th 2005 by Penguin Audiobooks (first published 2001)

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Mar 26, 2011

Jamie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone. So good.

Recommended to Jamie by: The girl at the Ferry Building Bookshop

There's probably nothing much I "learned" in the introspective sense, but this is a novel like a novel ought to be. This is an epic film on paper, gloomy and engaging, smokey, noir with crumbling ruins, young love, disfigurment, lust, torture...the stuff of Dumas, DuMauier and, as of late, The Historian. I woke up at five a.m. and had to sweet talk myself back to sleep: all I wanted to do was read. One Friday, after work, I took sanctuary in The Hotel Biron, those little tables in t...moreThere's probably nothing much I "learned" in the introspective sense, but this is a novel like a novel ought to be. This is an epic film on paper, gloomy and engaging, smokey, noir with crumbling ruins, young love, disfigurment, lust, torture...the stuff of Dumas, DuMauier and, as of late, The Historian. I woke up at five a.m. and had to sweet talk myself back to sleep: all I wanted to do was read. One Friday, after work, I took sanctuary in The Hotel Biron, those little tables in the dark, pages flickering with candles and drank a glass of wine in solitude, completely enthralled in the world of 1940's Barcelona.
I walked home from the train at night and found myself saying the characters names beneath my umbrella, hoping no one would hear me talking to myself, but they were, quite simply, too beautiful to ignore: Julian Carax, Daniel Semepere, Beatriz...Tomas, Penelope Aldaya and Nuria Monfort.
In a movie this would be too many people, but for this novel they were perfectly seamed, each point of view more entralling and taxing than the one before.
Most refreshing, clearly the author wasn't poisoned with the desire to simply keep the reader in the dark: instead this story, with attention, was something you could figure out--because that's the way life is. The mystery itself isn't supposed to shock you intensely into thinking a book is good, that's a dirty trick. Instead, the STORY carried you. You cared about the story and it was a tragity and mystery all the same, simply because you were invested in these people and what became of them. To know them so intimately from childhood to adulthood and old age, to know them through various degrees of point of view seperation--to hear there is no Penelope, and then to know she is a sister, a love, but to some non-existant...well, it's gothic literature at it's very best.
With a book like this I am almost, ALMOST tempted to give up my most pedantic and pretentious thoughts, paralells and character development--this story is a story and it's just that good. It is the Phantom of the Opera, those dark tunnels and pressure points, a lake with candles or drawing rooms with no fire in the grate and crazy wives being stored in attics over head. This is, quite literally a timeless tale, and yes, reading it will make you smarter, more interested, more cultured (the back of the book includes a walking tour of Barcelona. I missed Barcelona but I am quite determined to go now, with my copy of A Shadow of the Wind in hand, just like wanting desperately to visit Eastern Europe after I finished The Historian and see it all), but more importantly real life simply fades to black as you become completely, totally and fantastically helpless and wrapped up in the lives of others.
While there are fun hybrids--Crash Topics in Calamity Physics, for one, which combine a courses, authors, quotes and plot lines from a thousand famous novels, this book really makes that unnecessary. This is a classic without any help, no cheat cheats necessary. Read it. Read it. Read it.

**I write on books and other stuff at www.snapshotnarrative.tumblr.com (less)

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Sep 07, 2008

Annalisa rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: some language and sex

Recommended to Annalisa by: book club

Shelves: historical-fiction, mystery-thriller, magical-realism, book-club

I read the opening few pages and instantly knew 3 things:
1. I was going to love this book.
2. I needed a whole pad of post-its to mark quotes.
3. I wanted to read this in Spanish for the rich poetry the language would add.

A young boy Daniel is taken by his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and told to salvage a book which he must take stewardship over. He choses a novel—or maybe it chose him—that touches him, stirs his desire for literature, and forever entang...more

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Oct 19, 2007

Lola rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspence, fiction-literature

I found this novel by accident, while quickly browsing shelves at the local library, and let me just say it was the best accidental find i've had in years. From the very first line to the end i loved it, and as a reader i am not easily pleased by anything. I love stories out of the ordinary that captivate my imagination and run away with it. That is exactly what The Shadow of The Wind did.

Right off the bat the plot intrigued me, Daniel Sempere is taken to the a secret labyrinth of fo...more

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Jul 05, 2008

Lauren rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction

Ruiz Zafón has created a near-perfect novel: seductive and intriguing characters, a brilliant Spanish locale, and a lyrical style reminiscent of past literary masters. I found myself reading passages countless times just to savor the words. The language was so solid and mesmerizing, I could not believe it was a translation. The story lingers in your mind hours and days after reading it, and I become nostalgic; wishing I could read it again for the first time.

When Daniel Sempere first...more

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Oct 08, 2007

Dracolibris rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2007

This book had me hooked when the young protagonist is taken to "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" by his father in 1945 Barcelona. There he is allowed to choose one book that he will "adopt" and take care of, making sure it is never forgotten. He picks, seemingly at random, a book titled "The Shadow of the Wind" by an unknown author named Julian Carax.

But problems arise when, as the years go by, it becomes apparent that someone wants to make sure that...more

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Apr 03, 2008

Deb rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favorites

I bought a copy of this book last September at the library's book sale, but it languished unread on my shelf until yesterday. What prompted me to pick it up was this: I was browsing through the backlist and pre-orders at Subterranean Press because of an author I'd found who releases specialized, small run stories that I thought I'd like to read. (Caitlin R. Kiernan) Turns out her books now run about $40-60 a pop and are generally only available third hand. As I browsed down the list, I saw that ...moreI bought a copy of this book last September at the library's book sale, but it languished unread on my shelf until yesterday. What prompted me to pick it up was this: I was browsing through the backlist and pre-orders at Subterranean Press because of an author I'd found who releases specialized, small run stories that I thought I'd like to read. (Caitlin R. Kiernan) Turns out her books now run about $40-60 a pop and are generally only available third hand. As I browsed down the list, I saw that "The Shadow of the Winds" was priced at $75, and thought it was odd since the trade paperback was surely no more than $15.

Not only is this small press offering a $75 edition, they're also printing 26 copies of a $500 edition. That piqued my curiousity intensely--I knew the book was popular in literary circles, but I didn't think it had reached those heights. At the bottom of the page, the hook, line, and sinker read:

"We consider The Shadow of the Wind one of the most important books of the past twenty years, and aim to honor it with the lavish edition it so richly deserves."

I'm trying to read slowly: fifteen minutes here, thirty minutes there. This is a book that wants to be devoured, and I'm beginning to feel about it like I feel about Winterson's The Passion--sentences with lush philosophical gems sparkle in Zafon's beautiful prose, and I'm bending corners on the pages with the phrases that make me ache. (There are only four books that I've ever bent pages on).

The basic plot of the story runs something like this: the son of a Barcelona book-seller is taken to a graveyard of books to find and adopt one of them. He picks "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax and, after reading through the book in its entirety, realizes that it is the pinnacle of anything he's every read. After trying to find more books by Carax, however, the boy discovers a mystery that digs deep into both his life and the lives of those around him.

The truly interesting part is the way this novel is layered like Russian puzzle dolls, how each chapter reveals more plot within the plot. The amazing part comes when you realize the connections between the book you're reading and the book within the book: both novels are called "The Shadow of the Wind," both are the only known books in existence under the authors' names, and the main character is starting to resemble the author as well.

One more description to draw you in, taken from the Washington Post's review: "...If you love A.S. Byatt's Possession, Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, the short stories of Borges, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas, or Paul Auster's 'New York' trilogy...then you will love The Shadow of the Wind.

Yes yes yes. Yes yes.(less)

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Jul 02, 2007

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: gothic/Romantic lit freaks

Shelves: fiction, did-not-finish, goth-goth-baby, 21st-century, partialprejudicedandignorantopinion

Trying too hard. I wonder if I hadn't read this right after Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell if I would have liked it better. They were both trying to pay homage to the gothic/Romantic era writers, except that Strange and Norrell was brilliant, and this one was.. eh. I appreciated what the author was trying to do, but he didn't do it well enough to keep me reading. Yes, Romantic lit is full of cliche, but the thing is to do it in an intriguing way and with enough wit to keep your audience intere...more

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Jun 02, 2007

Monique Gerken rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

This is my favorite book of all time! It is my goal in life to have everyone read this. There wasn't a dull moment and it keeps you guessing.

"The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himse...more

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Nov 02, 2009

Lance Greenfield Mitchell rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

A book within a book

There are so many layers, and levels, and intertwining stories within this book. The main story is begins in 1945 with a ten-year-old Barcelona boy, Daniel Sempere, being taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, by his bookseller father, to choose a book, which he must keep alive.

Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. The book and the mystery surrounding its author, who appears to have suffered his fate in a duel in Paris, soon infatua...more

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Feb 12, 2011

Emir rated it

· review of another edition

"I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time."

Thus begins The Shadow of the Wind. At once, Carlos Ruiz Zafón grabs your attention, hinting of mysteries. From that portentous opening, Zafón trails one way then another, and another, and more. The Shadow of the Wind consist of tangles of unbelievable stories set in a bewitching Barcelona, where shadows move and identities are multiplied and blurred.

Everything t...more"I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time."

Thus begins The Shadow of the Wind. At once, Carlos Ruiz Zafón grabs your attention, hinting of mysteries. From that portentous opening, Zafón trails one way then another, and another, and more. The Shadow of the Wind consist of tangles of unbelievable stories set in a bewitching Barcelona, where shadows move and identities are multiplied and blurred.

Everything takes off from that fateful day when 10-year-old Daniel Sempere visits the secret library of forgotten books where: "According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive. It's a very important promise. For life."

Daniel gets The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. And things will never be the same again...

"I am in the business of storytelling. I always have been, always will be. It is what I've been doing since I was a kid. Telling stories, making up tales, bringing life to characters, devising plots, visualizing scenes and staging sequences of events, images, words and sounds that tell a story. All in exchange for a penny, a smile or a tear, and a little of your time and attention,"

Zafón writes on his website. One suspects a reversed curse at work: Carax was a virtual unknown as an author, a literary failure with a tragic life story; Zafón, meanwhile, is a roaring success as a writer: "After Don Quixote, The Shadow of the Wind is the most successful Spanish novel ever, and has sold seven million copies worldwide," says a piece of info in the book.

"Sometimes people ask me what piece of advice I would give to an aspiring author. I'd tell them that you should only become a writer if the possibility of not becoming one would kill you. Otherwise, you'd be better off doing something else."

The Shadow of the Wind is told in a voice of a god in full possession of his powers: to kill and bring back to life, to create and destroy, to arrange and rearrange everything. Reading it, you leave your doubts behind and get swept by the torrent of imagination, raging, triumphant. (less)

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Aug 21, 2011

Giovanni Faga rated it

· review of another edition

L'ho comprato perché ha stregato milioni di lettori in tutto il mondo. Hai visto mai che mi sono perso il libro che poi, tra dieci anni, un giorno qualunque che te ne stai bello tranquillo a farti le tue cose, arriva uno e ti dice:
«NON HAI LETTO l'Ombra del Vento? Ma sei impazzito? Vattene, non sei più mio amico.»
Allora l'ho comprato e tra una cosa e l'altra ci ho impiegato più di un mese a finirlo.
Non per colpa del libro, ma della vita.
E con la frase appena scritta (sopra)...more

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Jan 05, 2009

Daniel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own, novels

After reading The Shadow of the Wind, I was left with somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is such a beautifully written book, and is in essence an ode to literature. On the other hand, there are some serious flaws which distracts from the whole experience.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is Zafon's skill in artistic writing. It reminds me of why I love to read in the first place, and makes me wish I could write as beautiful as this. The book contains lots of ...moreAfter reading The Shadow of the Wind, I was left with somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is such a beautifully written book, and is in essence an ode to literature. On the other hand, there are some serious flaws which distracts from the whole experience.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is Zafon's skill in artistic writing. It reminds me of why I love to read in the first place, and makes me wish I could write as beautiful as this. The book contains lots of memorable quotes as well, definitely a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

So after about 50 pages in, I was ready to love this book as I seldom loved another book before. But as the story progressed, that resolution started to diminish slowly but surely. Ironically, one the more obvious flaws is Zafon's overuse of stylistic writing. It seems like everyone acts or talks in a very elaborate manner, even in the simplest of situations, and this can really become tiresome after a while.

The plot also isn't as ingenious as the hype would make you believe. Zafon does a good job creating a sense of mystery early on, and there are obvious parallels between the main character Daniel Sempere, and Julian Carax, the writer whose past he is trying to uncover. But ultimately, the stories of Daniel and Julian are seperate ones, and they just happen to interconnect with one another more by chance than by design.

By far the most troublesome flaw is the way the mysteries are "resolved". All too often, answers are given by having some side character or another tell his or her story for pages. Nowhere is this more evident than at the end of the book, where literally every single detail is revealed in the form of a (very) long letter, even details which the writer of the letter never could have known, since she wasn't even involved in those events. It's as if Zafon did not have a clue or the motivation to write a logical conclusion, and decided to just dump all the information in one place.

With a bit more attention to actual plot and character development, this could have been one of my favourite books. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed reading the Shadow of the Wind. It's just a shame that it falls some way short of its potential.(less)

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Jan 26, 2008

Suzy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Patient readers

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 05, 2007

Ben rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: adultfic, booktalked

My favorite book since Blindness. A must read for bibliophiles and a pretty good mystery, if you like that sort of thing. Below is my booktalk for this one, also from library school.

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

On Daniel Sepere’s 10th birthday, his father takes him to a cemetery. Instead of holding people, however, this cemetery is an underground library, and it is the final resting place of books. It is the Cemetery of Forgotten books, and it houses book...more

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Oct 20, 2011

Judy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who like stories about books

Shelves: fiction, spain, mystery, 2011-reads, books, favorites, france

Zafon combines romance and mystery in this coming-of-age thriller to perfection. The only thing I could knock it for would be that some of his characterization isn't well-defined. A couple of the characters are quite similar in speech and personality. This normally would be a big deal to me, but the witty banter had me too entertained to care.

Young Daniel's father is concerned because his son still mourns the death of his mother. Hence, he makes the decision to introduce Daniel to t...more

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Nov 07, 2011

umberto rated it

· review of another edition

In fact I came across this novel some few months ago at Kinokuniya Bookstore in BKK but I decided not to buy it then, I thought I didn't have time to finish its 500+ pages. I wasn't sure if it's a page-turner and I had never heard of Carlos Ruiz Zafon or read his book before.

However, I bought a copy from one of the booths in our annual Book Expo XVI held early this month in BBK. Surprisingly, its first page thrilled me with words I've never read before: "The only thing I can rec...moreIn fact I came across this novel some few months ago at Kinokuniya Bookstore in BKK but I decided not to buy it then, I thought I didn't have time to finish its 500+ pages. I wasn't sure if it's a page-turner and I had never heard of Carlos Ruiz Zafon or read his book before.

However, I bought a copy from one of the booths in our annual Book Expo XVI held early this month in BBK. Surprisingly, its first page thrilled me with words I've never read before: "The only thing I can recall is that it rained all day and all night, and that when I asked my father whether heaven was crying, he couldn't bring himself to reply." So I kept reading on and on and found this exceptional novel interesting in the following aspects:

1) It has no chapters, rather the whole story was subtly dissected into short or long sections headed by mysterious titles: The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Days of Ashes 1945-1949, An Empty Plate, True to Character 1951-1953, City of Shadows 1954, Nuria Monfort: Remembrance of the Lost 1933-1955, The Shadow of the Wind 1955, Postmortem 27 November 1955, The Waters of March 1956, and Dramatis Personae 1966. These help our reading pleasurable, chronologically, we don't have to endure endlessly like travelling in a literary labyrinth.

2) Poetic words enticing its readers to follow and imagine while reading reign supreme due to fine translation from Spanish by Lucia Graves, for instance:
- Gustavo Barcelo had a way of listening that seemed both contemplative and Solomonic, like a doctor or a pope. He observed me with his hands joined under his chin and his elbows on his desk, as if in prayer. (p. 312)
- '... Pay attention to me. Throw off these morbid thoughts and get some fresh air. Waiting is the rust of the soul' (p. 336)
- A young man, already showing a few grey hairs, walks through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn over Rambla de Santa Monica in a wreath of liquid copper. (p. 520)
etc.

3) This novel suggests a classic way of presenting a story within a story within a story ... like "The Arabian Nights", that is, when we read its final page, the characters and the context are almost the same as the first page.

4) Naturally, we also learn from what we read, so what do you think when you read this one? - Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day. ... (p. 516)

5) Eventually, this last paragraph signifies mystery and nostalgia, that is, it's beyond words to describe. Just read this and you'd know what I mean:
- Soon afterwards, like figures made of mist, father and son disappear into the crowd of the Ramblas, their steps lost forever in the shadow of the wind. (p. 520)

In brief, find a copy and enjoy!

(less)

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Sep 26, 2010

Ricardo Lourenço rated it

· review of another edition

“- Este lugar é um mistério, Daniel, um santuário. Cada livro, cada volume que vês, tem alma. A alma de quem o escreveu e a alma dos que o leram e viveram e sonharam com ele. Cada vez que um livro muda de mãos, cada vez que alguém desliza o olhar pelas suas páginas, o seu espírito cresce e torna-se forte. (...)
Quando uma biblioteca desaparece, quando uma livraria fecha as suas portas, quando um livro se perde no esquecimento, os que conhecemos este lugar, os guardiães, asseguramo-nos de qu...more“- Este lugar é um mistério, Daniel, um santuário. Cada livro, cada volume que vês, tem alma. A alma de quem o escreveu e a alma dos que o leram e viveram e sonharam com ele. Cada vez que um livro muda de mãos, cada vez que alguém desliza o olhar pelas suas páginas, o seu espírito cresce e torna-se forte. (...)
Quando uma biblioteca desaparece, quando uma livraria fecha as suas portas, quando um livro se perde no esquecimento, os que conhecemos este lugar, os guardiães, asseguramo-nos de que chegue aqui. Neste lugar, os livros de que já ninguém se lembra, os livros que se perderam no tempo, vivem para sempre, esperando chegar um dia às mãos de um novo leitor, de um novo espírito.”

É em 1945, numa Barcelona destroçada pela guerra civil que o jovem Daniel Sempere é levado pelo seu pai ao Cemitério dos Livros Esquecidos. Neste autêntico labirinto borgiano, Daniel escolhe um livro para proteger, de nome A Sombra do Vento, escrito pelo desconhecido Julián Carax, casualidade que terá importantes consequências na sua vida.
Neste romance Zafón condensa diversas influências, apresentando desde traços característicos do romance gótico a alguns vestígios de realismo mágico que, embora ténues, se vão insinuando ao longo da história, fazendo lembrar o estilo do colombiano Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Essa fusão é deliberada, revelando a ambição de Zafón em proporcionar ao leitor uma experiência cativante e intensa.

“Numa ocasião ouvi um cliente habitual comentar na livraria do meu pai que poucas coisas marcam tanto um leitor como o primeiro livro que realmente abre caminho até ao seu coração. Aquelas primeiras imagens, o eco dessas palavras que julgamos ter deixado para trás, acompanham-nos toda a vida e esculpem um palácio na nossa memória ao qual, mais tarde ou mais cedo – não importa quantos livros leiamos, quantos mundos descubramos, tudo quanto aprendamos ou esqueçamos –, vamos regressar.”

A Sombra do Vento marca profundamente Daniel, de tal forma deslumbrado que se surpreende ao descobrir que a obra de Carax não só foi um fracasso de vendas, como tem vindo a ser destruída por uma misteriosa figura que não poupa esforços para queimar todos os exemplares ainda existentes. O seu interesse pelo autor impulsiona-o a tentar descobrir mais sobre este, curiosidade que acabará por o envolver em circunstâncias cada vez mais perigosas.
Embora a perspectiva de Daniel seja predominante, a história ramifica-se nas suas investigações, efectuadas nos 40 e 50, e no passado do próprio Julián Carax, pontos a partir dos quais o enredo se fragmenta ainda mais, ora acompanhando a vida do jovem livreiro, ora mergulhando no passado das diversas personagens envolvidas com Carax, secções que normalmente se destacam pelo uso de itálico e pelo discurso na terceira pessoa.

“A sua alma está nas suas histórias. Numa ocasião perguntei-lhe em quem se inspirava para criar as suas personagens e ele respondeu-me que em ninguém. Que todas as personagens eram ele próprio.”

A acção é polvilhada por diversas considerações a respeito da relação entre o leitor e o texto, assim como da importância dos livros e do papel dos escritores. Na citação acima, Zafón vai de encontro à posição de José Saramago, algo visível num ensaio deste último, em que refere que “(...) o autor está no livro todo, o autor é todo o livro, mesmo quando o livro não consiga ser todo o autor”, pelo que não é de admirar a relevância atribuída ao autor e à sua capacidade em imprimir a sua alma nas palavras.

“O destino costuma estar ao virar da esquina. Como se fosse um gatuno, uma rameira ou um vendedor de lotaria: as suas três encarnações mais batidas. Mas o que não faz é visitas ao domicílio. É preciso ir atrás dele.”

E a alma de A Sombra do Vento está, para além das referidas considerações relativas à leitura, nas suas encantadoras personagens, das quais se destaca o excêntrico Fermín Romero, que com os seus comentários acutilantes e o seu sentido de humor nos consegue arrancar um sorriso nas situações mais inacreditáveis.
Uma obra marcante, dedicada aos amantes da literatura, que torna claro como nunca é tarde para tomar as rédeas do nosso pensamento, para deixarmos de nos submeter às crenças alheias, aproveitando ao máximo um dos actos mais enriquecedores da experiência humana: a leitura.

“Bea diz que a arte de ler está a morrer muito lentamente, que é um ritual íntimo, que um livro é um espelho e que só podemos encontrar nele o que já temos dentro, que ao ler aplicamos a mente e a alma, e que estes são bens cada dia mais escassos.”
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Mar 04, 2008

Khaya rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone!

Shelves: miscellaneousgreatbooks, favorites, greatlovestories, historicalfiction

I loved this. It had so many elements of a great novel -- romance, mystery, richly drawn characters, humor, a story within a story (with both plots equally enjoyable and dovetailing in interesting ways), and great writing -- even in translation. Someone compared it to "History of Love." I sort of see the comparison, but I think I would compare it more to "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. Anyway, I highly recommend it.

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Nov 05, 2011

Carol rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Carol by: Paul, Helen, book groups

Shelves: lifetime-favorites, fiction

Several of my GoodReads friends really loved Shadow of the Wind. Paul and Helen nudged me to move it up on my list and I can't thank them enough for this. I have just spent the last week reading one of the most engaging novels that I've read this past year. Watch out everyone. I'm going to badger you until you read it too.

Shadow of the Wind is a bit of a humbling experience; I'm truly not certain I can do it justice. If you're a book lover, someone who loves to read, who appreciates...moreSeveral of my GoodReads friends really loved Shadow of the Wind. Paul and Helen nudged me to move it up on my list and I can't thank them enough for this. I have just spent the last week reading one of the most engaging novels that I've read this past year. Watch out everyone. I'm going to badger you until you read it too.

Shadow of the Wind is a bit of a humbling experience; I'm truly not certain I can do it justice. If you're a book lover, someone who loves to read, who appreciates stories with realistic characters and vivid locales, put Shadow on your list.

Shadow of the Wind is a book to cherish. It has it all. It's a heart wrenching love story, intricate mystery, rollicking adventure, and though serious, laugh out loud funny at times. Talk about characters that you come to know and love. Shadow possesses some of the absolute best. These include the main character Daniel, his side-kick, the down and out homeless, Fermin Romero de Torres, an incredibly brutal and evil cop, Chief Inspector Francisco Javier Fumero, some very beautiful and sexy women, and a whole cast of others that come to life on these pages.

Told over a span of many years, much of the action takes place in post-second world war Barcelona. On Daniel's eleventh birthday to his horror he can no longer picture his deceased mothers face. In an attempt to make the day special his father, a book store owner, brings Daniel to a magical place, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books and encourages Daniel to choose one book from this repository for the cast off books of the world. Daniel's selection, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax captures his boyhood imagination and undying admiration. He can't wait to get his hands on more by this author. Daniel soon learns that Carax has disappeared and his books are just as elusive as the author. Early on he discovers someone has been searching for and destroying all Carax's works. The mystery behind author and works becomes an obsession that will haunt and play a part in Daniel's life for years.

There are many beautiful descriptive passages throughout. I'll quote just one passage for us bibliophiles:

"Bea says the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day." Exquisite!

No more as they seem out of context or revealing to plot and in the end each reader finds his own favorite quotes. Suffice it to say, you're bound to find something that will remain with you here.

I had picked Shadow up over a year ago and initially wasn't certain I would like it. I had not given it time to absorb me into its plot. I didn't understand where this Cemetery of Forgotten Books was taking me or why I'd like to take the journey. So much in a story depends on mood and my level of concentration. This time out I was engrossed from the start and only wished I had more time to read to the finish. Stretching the book over a week's time was probably not a bad thing in the end as I savored the language and story as I read more slowly. I could easily read this again and will add it to my all time favorites list. Books, reading, telling stories, life and the lessons it teaches; Carlos Ruiz Zafon gets it right!(less)

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Dec 29, 2011

Scarlett rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, 2012, love-luuurve-lou, magic-realism, awesom-otic

[Note - This review will not contain names of any of the characters, because I don't trust myself to not reveal the plot of the story, and I want anyone who reads this review to actually read this book]

A tale of passionate love, till the end of time friendship, ruthless hatred and extreme sorrow, the words in Shadow of the Wind wove a beautiful world of the early nineties in my mind in Barcelona.

What entirely captured my attention in the first few pages and let me read the fi...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Tanychy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The fact is that I’ll never be able to write a real review of this book. Here is why :

1. I’m not good enough.
I’m not now and I’ll never be. It doesn’t matter how many books you have read or how smart you are, you’re never good enough for that. You won’t be able to find exact words and it’s not just you. Only person who can is the author himself, but I think he already said everything he wanted.
Don’t believe me?
- “Books are mirrors - you only see in them what yo...more

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May 14, 2010

Henry rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: own, favorites

First, let me say this book is ridiculously hard to summarize. It required a little more time and attention than most other fiction I have read, mainly because it is the sort of mystery in which tiny details are given throughout, and most of them play an important part in piecing everything together by the end of the book. The story is told in layers and each is interdependent on other layers.

The novel is the story of Daniel Sempere, who at age 10 is taken by his father, a Barcelona...moreFirst, let me say this book is ridiculously hard to summarize. It required a little more time and attention than most other fiction I have read, mainly because it is the sort of mystery in which tiny details are given throughout, and most of them play an important part in piecing everything together by the end of the book. The story is told in layers and each is interdependent on other layers.

The novel is the story of Daniel Sempere, who at age 10 is taken by his father, a Barcelona bookseller, to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. While there he chooses a book called "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax. He is so enthralled by the novel that as he enters adulthood he sets out to find every book Carax has written, but encounters an obstacle. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence.Every copy of every book the author has written is being tracked down and burned by a disfigured man who bears a striking resemblance to a character in Carax's novel and even carries his name. Daniel's quest to save the remaining copies is intertwined with the story of Barcelona and its recovery from the Spanish Civil War. But "The Shadow of the Wind" is much more than a literary mystery. It is a gothic tale, filled with action, romance, mystery and, of course, books.

When I say that it's a mystery, I don't mean it in the traditional "whodunit" sense of the word. The mystery is not just about solving a murder, but about reconstructing the story of a life. This book is a complex tale composed of stories within stories. Throughout the book the reader finds out bits and pieces of the mystery of Julian Carax; who he was and how his life affected those around him. Those facts are not always given in sequence, however, and so there is a lot for the reader to speculate on and guess at while reading.

The characters in this novel are outstandingly portrayed. The surrounding cast each have their own personal history and even some quirks, but they come across as genuine and interesting. In particular, the character of Fermin Romero de Torres was humorous and wise. There are so many instances in this book where you want to underline a line or two of Fermin's dialog in order to refer back to it because you realize the true pearls of wisdom in what he says.

"Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it." - Fermin Romero De Torres

The Shadow of the Wind’ is a novel that offers entertainment, amusement, intelligence and good writing. It has become on of my favorites and I would highly recommend it to everyone. (less)

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Oct 03, 2009

L rated it

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Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! I fell in love with this book (which begins with a young boy falling in love with a book) from the first few pages and never looked back. It did what we often hope our books will do; it took me out of the sort of bad place I've been in recently. Ok, so the place it took me is fascist Spain, but the story is about navigating that place and time, living one's life, and the power of books in all of this.

There is a mystery, a wonderful one. There are wonder...more

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Mar 24, 2011

Alethea rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: book lovers

Recommended to Alethea by: random customer who wishes Zafon's newest novel were in Englis

Shelves: favorites, what-a-twist, top-10-of-2008, tearjerker, sexy, page-turner, love, literary, fiction, creepy, book-lovers, audiobook, autographed, awesome

-*-The item pictured above is a special edition--I haven't received it yet! It comes out at the end of the year. I can't wait to see it.-*-

Wow. A must-read for book lovers, all the way to the Dramatis Personae at the end. Sumptuous prose and melodrama, a full cavalcade of carefully wrought characters, suspense, romance, gothic horror and best of all, it is read on CD by my new favorite audiobook reader, Jonathan Davis. (He also reads The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.) If I ever los...more

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Aug 21, 2008

Katie rated it

· review of another edition

This book tells the story of Daniel Sempere, the son of a rare book dealer who one day stumbles upon a mysterious book by a mysterious author called Julián Carax. Daniel tries to find out more of Carax’s work and discovers that almost all Carax’s novels are being systematically destroyed by a shadowy figure who refers to himself by the name of one of Carax’s characters. Thus is a mystery launched, as Daniel attempts to unravel Carax’s secrets and figure out why his novels are being burned.
...moreThis book tells the story of Daniel Sempere, the son of a rare book dealer who one day stumbles upon a mysterious book by a mysterious author called Julián Carax. Daniel tries to find out more of Carax’s work and discovers that almost all Carax’s novels are being systematically destroyed by a shadowy figure who refers to himself by the name of one of Carax’s characters. Thus is a mystery launched, as Daniel attempts to unravel Carax’s secrets and figure out why his novels are being burned.

I liked The Shadow of the Wind, but it wasn’t exactly the suspenseful read that the first few chapters led me to expect. The mystery moves forward in fits and starts; the book is like some overstuffed Gothic horror of a house—the literary equivalent of the Bates mansion, perhaps—and Zafón sometimes seems to get distracted within his own creation, dropping the story of Julián Carax to spend time with another one of his creations, or just to look around and describe what he sees. There is a lot of back and forth between the past and the present as well, and the loose organization of this can sometimes make it seem like Zafón is just making it up as he goes along, without any real plan for getting to the end.

Interestingly, underneath all the mystery and secrets and Gothic detail, The Shadow of the Wind seems mainly to be a book about the mistakes people make in their own lives and the lives of others, particularly about the mistakes that well-intentioned people make: misreading each other, remaining still when they should act, acting when they should remain still, failing to communicate, keeping secrets too long or revealing them to the wrong people. The narrative is littered with these mistakes; we see them compounding each other and rippling through time as events in Carax’s life slowly spiral downward. There’s a nice sense of inevitability to the book’s dramatic conclusion. Although it’s not terribly realistic, I felt that everything had to end as it did.

Perhaps the best thing about The Shadow of the Wind is its use of setting. Zafón has picked a rich setting for himself—Barcelona in the ’40s and ’50s, just after the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War—and he does a great job of evoking the city, the mood of the time, the architecture, etc.

I read the book in a translation by Lucia Graves. I don’t know whether I should blame Graves or Zafón, but the quality of prose in this book wasn’t that hot. I suspect that the occasional lapses into the purple are Zafón’s responsibility, and those actually work with the subject matter, but there are also some seriously cheesy/clunky sentences that I suspect are the result of clumsily translated idioms. I don’t think there’s another English translation out there, but if you’re thinking about reading this book and you happen to be fluent in Spanish, it might be worth trying it in the original.(less)

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Jun 22, 2008

Julia rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I was surprised by that one.

My friend reccomended me to read it.
She bought me three books from the 'Princess Diares' series for my 16 birthday , so I wasn't expecting much of 'The Shadow of the Wind'.But suprisingly It turned out as an interesting, and fascinating mystery book. The plot, the characters, the ideas of the book, the setting - everything was just perfect! I was sucked into it.. without even noticing..
The whole book was read at one piece. I Started reading a...more

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Mar 22, 2010

Simon rated it

· review of another edition

It's been a couple years since I read this book so I shouldn't and won't go into details, but the effect has lingered all this time. There's no other book I'm quicker to recommend than this one. It's not that it's particularly important in a lot of the ways "important" books are, it's just that it works as pure reading pleasure (and sometimes, just sometimes, isn't that enough?); so I find reviews from people desperate to discover structural flaws and stylistic cliches to be entirely m...more

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May 16, 2007

Jordan rated it

· review of another edition

This book SEEMED like it was going to be so good - a dark mystery set in post-war Barcelona, with tragic love and a place called The Cemetary of Forgotton Books... what's not to love? (To be honest, I'm not a fan of tragic love, but everything else at least seemed great). But while I was vaguely curious to see how everything pieced together, I didn't like or care about any of the characters, and dialogue like "Sometimes I no longer know who you are," kept me at a distance. The book ne...more

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Jan 29, 2008

Evelyn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: alltimefavorites, mystery

On his eleventh birthday, Daniel is initiated into the secrets of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There, he is entranced by a book by Julian Carax whose other books are being systematically hunted down and burned by a mysterious stranger. Daniel's quest to discover why leads him into a labyrinth of love, murder, and hope.

Outstanding writing, unforgettable characters, and a multi-layered story with depths of meaning. This book is a treasure--suspenseful, poetic, and mysterious. For...more

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Jul 30, 2008

Erin and Jim rated it

· review of another edition

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind" is terrific. It could be described as a gothic, mysterious novel, but such adjectives are limiting. It's a moving story set in Barcelona, 1945. "Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day." And that's just o...more

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About Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a Spanish novelist. Born in Barcelona in 1964, he has lived in Los Angeles, United States, since 1994, and works as a scriptwriter aside from writing novels.

His first novel, El príncipe de la niebla (The Prince of Mist, 1993), earned the Edebé literary prize for young adult fiction. He is also the author of three more young-adult novels, El palacio de la medianoche...more

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