The Shadow of the Wind: Book #1 of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

‘Watch it, some of these would suck your blood, if they thought it would make them any younger,’ said Fermín. ‘Age makes them all look as meek as lambs, but there are as many sons of bitches in here as out there, or more. Because these are the ones who have lasted and buried the rest. Don’t feel sorry for them. Go on, begin with those ones in the corner—they look harmless enough.’ If those words were meant to give me courage for the mission, they failed miserably. I looked at the group of human remains that languished in the corner and smiled at them. It occurred to me that their very presence was testimony to the moral emptiness of the universe and the mechanical brutality with which it destroys the parts it no longer needs. Fermín seemed able to read these profound thoughts and nodded gravely. ‘Mother Nature is the meanest of bitches, that’s the sad truth,’ he said. ‘Go on, be brave.’

‘Making money isn’t hard in itself,’ he complained. ‘What’s hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting your life to.’