The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1) in Read Runners

Jan 22, 2016 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: br-with-aparna

This was some tale! It ruined my sleep and disrupted my daily routine. What an amazing narration! The wordplay was brilliant that I imagined myself walking in the streets of Barcelona a place I have never seen even in pictures.I can still see the Aldaya mansion and its dilapidated marble statues and even the angel's accusingly pointed hand.
The story begins when Daniel a ten year old motherless boy is taken to The Cemetery of forgotten Books a huge library of forgotten books by his father . { I w ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2020 Damini rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, close-to-heart, books-i-own, 2020-gr-reading-challenge, translated-literature, literary-fiction

"..we exist as long as somebody remembers us."

When you start reading a book that many of your peers have read, loved and recommended unequivocally, you know that you are in for a delight but unless you turn the pages of the book, you don't quite comprehend just how much you will be captivated by it. The Shadow of the Wind starts rather unceremoniously. In the war-torn city of Barcelona, Daniel, a young boy is introduced to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by his father. It's a place that harbours "..we exist as long as somebody remembers us."

When you start reading a book that many of your peers have read, loved and recommended unequivocally, you know that you are in for a delight but unless you turn the pages of the book, you don't quite comprehend just how much you will be captivated by it. The Shadow of the Wind starts rather unceremoniously. In the war-torn city of Barcelona, Daniel, a young boy is introduced to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by his father. It's a place that harbours books the world has forgotten, a place where once you set foot you have to adopt one book and take care of it for the rest of your life. Mesmerized by the maze that the cemetery is, Daniel ends up choosing a book named "The Shadow of the Wind" written by one Julián Carax and takes it home. His life begins to change when he finishes reading the book.

"..few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget—we will return."

Having read and loved the book, Daniel wants to read all the works of Carax. In his quest for this author and his books, Daniel stumbles upon the mysterious veil that covers everything remotely connected to Carax's name. Meeting various people, exploring various resources, Daniel along with his compnion Fermin goes on exploring the events on Carax's life and the readers in turn discovers the occurrings in the protagonist's life.

The most remarkable thing about the book is undoubtedly its narrative. The prose is lyrical and it will keep you enchanted. The beginning was a bit slow for me but once I got into the book, there was no stopping or turning back. The characters, even the secondary ones are so deftly created by the author that they start seeming no less than living, breathing characters narrating their own story. Another thing that I loved was how beautifully the relationships between the characters are portrayed, be it the father-son relationship, various dimensions of friendship, the warm bonding between the neighbours, or the governess who assumes the role of a loving mother of the child she's looking after. The parallels that the author draws between the past and present timeline are bound to keep the reader glued to the book in both admiration and anticipation. The book has everything you look for in a good story, love, laughter, tragedy, a gripping narrative and complex characters. There were times when I thought I couldn't go on reading it because the pain was too much but as it happens with the greatest of books, even when you do not want the story to end, you simply cannot stop reading either. I cannot talk about the plot more without giving away spoilers, so I won't try but it'd not be fair if I didn't share a few quotes from the pages where my highlighter has visited too frequently.

"One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep."

"The only use for military service is that it reveals the number of morons in the population," he would remark. "And that can be discovered in the first two weeks; there's no need for two years. Army, Marriage, the Church, and Banking: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

"Our world will not die as a result of the bomb, as the papers say, it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke of everything, and a lousy joke at that."

"Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn't stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct, like a stable animal, convinced that he's doing good, that he's always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around fucking up, if you'll excuse the French, anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin color, creed, language, nationality, or, as in the case of Don Federico, his leisure habits. What the world needs is more thoroughly evil people and fewer borderline pigheads."

"The words with which a child's heart is poisoned, through malice or through ignorance, remain branded in his memory, and sooner or later they burn his soul."

"..sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?"
I shrugged. "Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are."

"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."

"Time has taught me not to lose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either. Hope is cruel, and has no conscience."

"..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."

Utkarsh, there goes your long review (although it's mostly just quotes from the book itself 😂). Thank you for recommending the book, for pestering continuously to read it and for tolerating my questions and rants while I was reading it. It's an absolute treasure that I'm sure I'll keep coming back to. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 30, 2015 Tilak Khurana rated it it was amazing

My 100th read couldn't have been better than this book. I loved every page of this book. Though it was bit predictable but that's okay, i never felt i lost any part in this book.
...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 31, 2023 Elina Mäkitalo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Kirja oli ihan mielenkiintoinen ja ideana hyvää. Tykkäsin suurimman osan aikaa vaikka välillä olikin hieman sekava eikä meinannut pysyä kärryillä. Ehkä pitäisi lukea uudelleen joskus, että saisi kaikki pienet yksityiskohdat esiin. Kuitenkin nelosen arvoinen ja kiinnostuin koko sarjan lukemisesta. Mieleenpainuvinta oli unohdettujen kirjojen hautausmaa ja siitä olisi voitu kirjoittaa enemmän ja tapahtumia sijoittaa sinne enemmän.

2 likes · Like · see review