Apr 25, 2004.. THE SHADOW OF THE WIND By Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Translated by Lucia Graves. 486 pp. New York: The Penguin Press. $24.95.
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We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon . {"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.19,"ASIN":"0143034901","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":13.61,"ASIN":"0767931114","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.33,"ASIN":"006220629X","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"0143034901::%2BI0v9WF%2FrtRyyUVZB7RxE%2BAC%2BmAORiGmAF0lCfm9PrgkOS6spHQKelAhb8phawR3%2FTy7hq6vYVmla9kB4RT2Nt1xmghci7%2FF%2BZjSqJdRL3o%3D,0767931114::xJEytU2q8%2B8ocUHI%2Fw0peBTNyEjJwYrFp5NLslKzz%2BlbCU5ZwdjnH8VBC4LmjkpCgNDQvngJUUMAUUXmRqhRCrCDub7ZQvXAeQ1%2Fxwcm82e1JzfxwNb9FA==,006220629X::zOFIwqQV%2FL0c6vrDc12JzF0hKWYFvoOhDEWtu%2Bxm%2Bzsh62jT8Df%2FKofZDGdKSVXCJqYyHuKTH7veEYJHTkAQehQmcXhFUThRc2GrMJZp0dYhmofaPbc6Rw==","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","xy":"same","yz":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}} The enthusiastic praise and adulation which critics have accorded the english publication of Carlo Ruiz Zafon's first novel, "The Shadow of the Wind", may trouble the reader who begins the book, worried that little might match his expectations. After all, reviewers who compare a writer's work to a combination of Umberto Eco, or Jorge Luis Borges, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or other literary giants, compel the reader to expect to be transported when they open the book. Not to worry. Once started, the single downside for the reader will be knowing that the experience must end. The plot is quite complex, the jacket cover's synopsis will give the reader all he needs to know. The important thing is to read it slowly and carefully. A mystery story, a fairy tale, a love story (actually several love stories), a passion for literature, a treatise on politics, a bawdy tale, with love, hate, courage, intrigue, loss of innocence, humor, cowardice, villainy, cruelty, compassion, regret, murder, incest, redemption, and more. Add to this delicious mixture characters who come alive, and whose thoughts and feelings you will feel deeply. What a great pleasure to discover; an extraordinary first work, one which towers over the endless and repetative volumes which inhabit today's "Best Seller" lists. Read it, and become hypnotized. Edward Jawer Wyncote, Pa. ejawer@comcast.net Zafón's storytelling skill is quite remarkable, his prose doesn't just take you into the story, it completely transports you. In only a few sentances. Zafón crafts a world of remarkable visions and events--just a little bit magical (as all the best stories really are) but grounded in characters who live, breathe, and merrily cavort off the page and into your heart. But Zafón isn't just a strong storyteller with an exact sense of prose (and my compliments to the excellent translation!), Shadow of the Wind connects to people, it's almost a watershed. It's been a long time since I've been so excited about a book. I tell -everyone- to read it: best friends, my mom, relatives, people I work with--they're all hearing raves from me. And I don't do that lightly, but this book is joyous and sad, heartfelt and even wise. But most important of all is that Shadow of the Wind is true. It's one of those rare books where you don't just hear 'their' story, it becomes your story as well. To loosely quote Caráx, "it holds up a mirror and a window to your soul," because it teaches us about who we are--about the communities that bind and define you. And every single moment Fermín Romero de Torres was 'on screen' I had the biggest grins on my face, truly one of the great characters of literature. I've not a single criticism or reservation about this book, and that puts Zafón on an extremely short list with Mark Twain, Frank Herbert and Orson Scott Card. That it's so tempting to read SHADOW OF THE WIND is a tribute to clever marketing. Comparisons to Marquez, Borges, and Dickens mix with gushing tributes from Stephen King and references to best-sellerdom in Spain. The literary come-on is hard to resist. In the end however, the way you respond to this book will depend on what expectations you bring to it. If you anticipate a reading experience worthy of those heady literary comparisons, you'll be sorely disappointed - Zafon is little closer to Garcia Marquez than Stephen King is. The closest he comes is having the temerity to give a minor character, a boyfriend of Beatriz Aguilar's, the family name Buendia, the prolific clan from ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. If you plan, however, on a fantastical romp through a mid-century Barcelona converted wholesale into a gothic swamp of ghosts, shadows, haunted houses, malevolent, revenge-seeking, jilted lovers, swooning virginal maidens, improbably picaresque characters, unbelievable coincidences, parallelisms, and twists of fate, and a host of pseudo-Freudian relationships, you'll love every minute. The story line of SHADOW OF THE WIND is so complex and convoluted, it's nearly impossible to relate in less space than the book's own 487 pages. Suffice to say, the premise is drawn from the search of a teenaged boy named Daniel for the truth about the fate of Julian Carax, the author of a mystery story (also named "Shadow of the Wind") that Daniel has adopted and read after his bibliophilic father takes him on a "coming of age" excursion to the aptly metaphorical Cemetary of Forgotten Books. Carax has apparently written a number of other books, all of them commercial failures, yet someone has been traveling Europe to find and burn every extant copy of Carax's works.Read more › Reading "The Shadow Of The Wind" was both a delight and a disappointment. This novel had the potential to be excellent literary fiction. At times Carlos Ruiz Zafon's writing reminded me of both Gabriel Garcia Marquez's and Jorge Luis Borges' work. My expectations rose dramatically as I began to hope for more than a good read. Instead of great literature, however, the novel became an overlong and predictable bestseller, with a most original premise, some brilliant passages and many flaws. Sr. Ruiz Zafon's extraordinary idea of creating a Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinthian library where each book awaits someone to choose it and give it another chance to live by making it part of the new owner's life, gave me chills. There existed a possibility, as I read the first chapters, that I might be able to list this as one of my favorite works of fiction. Unfortunately, my disappointment when reaching the novel's conclusion overshadowed the book's many positive elements. Daniel Sempere is a young boy who fears he has forgotten the image of his dead mother's face. His compassionate father, an antiquarian book dealer, introduces him to the book cemetery. Daniel and Sr. Sempere are both memorable and unusual characters, as are many of Ruiz Zafon's other figures. Fermin, a former Republican agent who becomes a second father to Daniel, and Julian Carax, the author of the book Daniel selects, are both extraordinary men. Daniel's choice of books ultimately determines the course of his life, as he tries to discover if the author is still alive and solve the multitude of mysteries surrounding him. The setting, post-WWII Barcelona, is fascinating and Zafon depicts a brooding city in mourning as a result of the atrocities of both civil and world wars.Read more ›
490 quotes from The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1): 'Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.'.
Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind.
Jan 25, 2005.. THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a multi-layered tale about a ten-year-old boy named Daniel Sempere, who picks up a ..
The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish: La sombra del viento) is a 2001 novel by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón and a worldwide bestseller. The book was ..
The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish: La sombra del viento) is a 2001 novel by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón and a worldwide bestseller. The book was translated into English in 2004 by Lucia Graves and sold over a million copies in the UK after already achieving success on mainland Europe, topping the Spanish bestseller lists for weeks. It was published in the United States by Penguin Books and in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and by Orion Books. It is believed to have sold 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. Ruiz Zafón's follow-up, The Angel's Game, is a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind. It was published in Spanish in April 2008 by Planeta and then acquired by Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Lucia Graves published a hardback English edition in June 2009. The Angel's Game is set in Barcelona during the 1920s and 1930s and follows a young writer who is approached by a mysterious figure to write a book. The novel, set in post–war Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel Sempere. Just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. That morning he takes the book home and reads it, completely engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author but can find none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man – calling himself Laín Coubert, after a character in the book who happens to be the Devil – who has been seeking out Carax's books for decades, buying them all and burning them. The novel is actually a story within a story. The boy, Daniel Sempere, in his quest to discover Julian's other works, becomes involved in tracing the entire history of Carax. His friend Fermin Romero de Torres, who was imprisoned and tortured in Montjuic Castle for having been involved in an espionage against the Anarchists during the war – himself being a government intelligence agent – helps Daniel in a number of ways, but their probing into the murky past of a number of people who have either been long dead or long forgotten unleashes the dark forces of the murderous Inspector Fumero. Thus, unravelling a long story that has been buried within the depths of oblivion, Daniel and Fermin come across a love story, the beautiful, yet doomed love story of Julian and Penelope, both of whom seem to having been missing since 1919 – that is, nearly thirty years earlier. Julian, who was the son of the hatter Antoni Fortuny and his wife Sophie Carax (but preferred to use his mother's last name) and Penelope Aldaya, the only daughter of the extremely wealthy Don Ricardo Aldaya and his beautiful and narcissistic American wife, developed an instant love for each other, carried out a clandestine relationship only through casual furtive glances and faint smiles for around four years, after which they decided to elope to Paris, unaware that the shadows of misfortune had been closing upon them ever since they met. The two lovers are doomed to unknown fates just a week before their supposed elopement, which is meticulously planned by Julian's best friend, Miquel Moliner – also the son of a wealthy father, who had earned much during the war including an ill reputation of selling ammunition. It is eventually revealed that Miquel loved Julian more than any brother and finally sacrificed his own life for him, having already abandoned all his wishes and youth towards lost causes of charity and his friend's well-being after his elopement to Paris, nevertheless without Penelope, who never turned up for the rendezvous. Penelope's memories keep burning Julian and this eventually forces him to return to Barcelona (in the mid 1930s), however he encounters the harshest truth about Penelope, who had been nothing more than a memory for those who knew her, for she had never been seen or heard of again by anyone after 1919. Daniel discovers, from the note Nuria Monfort left for him, that Julian and Penelope are actually half-brother and sister; her father had an affair with his mother and Julian was the result. The worst thing he learns is that after he left, Penelope's parents imprisoned her because they were ashamed of her committing incest with Julian, and she was pregnant with his child. Penelope gave birth to a son named David Aldaya, who was stillborn. Penelope died during childbirth, due to her parents ignoring her cries for help, and her body was placed in the family crypt along with her child's. When returning to the Aldaya Mansion, Julian becomes enraged with the news of his love's death along with their child's. He hates every wasted second of his life without Penelope and hates his books all the more. He begins to burn all of his novels and calls himself Lain Coubert. After finishing reading the book, Daniel marries Beatriz "Bea" Aguilar, whom he has loved for a long time, in 1956. Soon after, Bea gives birth to a son. Daniel names his son Julian Sempere, in honor of Julian Carax. In 1966, Daniel takes Julian to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where The Shadow of the Wind is kept. Daniel Sempere - The main character of the story. Son of a bookshop owner. After visiting the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and picking out The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax, Daniel learns that he should treasure this book because a mysterious figure has been searching for all of Carax's books, and subsequently burning them. After reading the book, Daniel becomes obsessed with its elusive author. What he doesn't realize is that there's more to the story than he could ever dream. In the climax, he marries Beatriz and has a son named Julian, named after Julian Carax. Tomás Aguilar - Best friend of Daniel Sempere. Tough and strong, very protective of his sister Bea, and also a rather intelligent inventor. Quiet and shy though. Fermín Romero de Torres - Sidekick, friend, and mentor of Daniel Sempere. After some hard times and several years on the streets, he is assisted by Daniel and Daniel's father, who give him an apartment and a permanent job at the bookshop. Beatriz Aguilar - Love interest of Daniel Sempere and sister of Tomás. Bea, who is a very pretty young woman, is still in school. It is due to her that Daniel and Tomás became friends in the first place because, when the two were schoolboys, Daniel made a joke about Bea that made Tomás start a fight with him. After the blood had dried, they became the best of friends. Bea's father and brother are very protective of her and she has been for several years engaged to marry an army officer, a staunch upholder of the Franco dictatorship. In the climax, she marries Daniel and becomes the mother of Julian Sempere. Don Gustav Barcelo - Friend of Daniel and his father. An older man who is a book lover and buyer. He originally offers to buy "The Shadow of the Wind" from Daniel who declines his offer. He is also a father figure to his niece Clara. Clara Barceló - Niece of the wealthy Don Gustav Barceló, who is very beautiful, yet blind. For several years, the young Daniel comes to her uncle's house to sit and read with her. He develops a schoolboy crush on her even though she is ten years his senior, but tries to forget her once he discovers her in a compromising position with her piano instructor. Julián Carax - The author of "The Shadow of the Wind". Daniel desperately seeks to find out the truth about this mysterious man: the reasons for his journeys, the truth about his childhood, and the explanation for why his books are all being destroyed. He falls in love with Penelope at first sight. Their love affair, however, has been doomed since the beginning, after they learn that they are half-brother and sister. After being caught making love to Penelope by her parents, he flees to Paris. After the deaths of Penelope and their son, David, he writes a series of books and eventually disappears without a trace. Francisco Javier Fumero - The main antagonist. An odd schoolboy friend of Julián Carax who grows up to be a corrupt and murderous police inspector. Miquel Moliner - A schoolboy friend of Julián Carax, fun-loving and loyal. So much so, in fact, that he sacrifices his own life for Julián's. Father Fernando Ramos - A schoolboy friend of Julián Carax who later becomes a priest at their old school. He assists Daniel in his quest for the truth about Julián. Jorge Aldaya - A schoolboy friend of Julián Carax, sometimes rather moody, very wealthy. He is Penelope's older brother, and also Julian's half-brother by their father. He dies in Paris in 1936. Penélope Aldaya - An ethereal beauty, devoid of anything worldly, she is described as an angel of light. She and Julian fall in love with each other right from their first sight. It is as if destiny had already planned their doomed love, as it is revealed that they are half-brother and sister. After having been caught in a tryst with Julian in her governess, Jacinta's, room, her parents imprison her and discover that she is pregnant with Julian's child. She dies after giving birth to David, the son of her and Julian. Jacinta Coronado - The devoted former governess of Penélope Aldaya, now living in a retirement home, who helps Daniel in his quest. Nuria Monfort - An intelligent, 'femme fatale' who worked at the publishing house where Julián's books were published. She also conducted an affair with Julián while he lived in Paris, and although she falls deeply in love with him he does not reciprocate. Daniel goes to visit her for more information on Julián but later realizes that she fed him lies to protect Julián. She is also the daughter of Mr. Monfort, who holds the keys to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel found "The Shadow of the Wind". She marries Miquel Moliner, Julian's childhood friend. The Spanish Civil War forms much of the background for the book, as a still fresh traumatic memory, and there are many extensive flashbacks to that period. The book presents positively the Generalitat – the autonomous Catalan authority which (partially) administered Barcelona during the Civil War and was brutally suppressed after Franco's victory, and whose executed leader Lluís Companys is revered by Catalans as a hero and martyr. Daniel's friend Fermín Romero de Torres, among the book's most sympathetic characters, is mentioned as having been a senior secret agent for the Generalitat and having been horribly tortured and persecuted for it after the fall of Barcelona in 1939. In contrast, the Anarchist movement FAI – which, among others, had won George Orwell's approval and warm admiration in his classic "Homage to Catalonia" – is here consistently presented in a very negative light. "The Anarchists, the Communists and the Fascists" are repeatedly mentioned as essentially three gangs of murderous thugs of whom there was no essential difference – symbolized by the fact that the psychopathic Fumero continually flirted with all three, ever ready to throw his lot with whoever came on top. The present time of the book's plot is entirely under the Franco dictatorship. There is the ever-present shadow of the sinister Inspector Fumero – whose acts of torture and murder are, however, presented as deriving from a personal insanity more than from official ideology or policy. The mass extrajudicial executions in the immediate aftermath of Franco's victory are still remembered with a shudder, and in the Barcelona depicted, a person arbitrarily beaten up by police has no legal recourse. Nevertheless, most people live their ordinary lives, much as people do everywhere, and there is no general atmosphere of terror. In fact, people often regard the regime with contempt rather than fear, and many of the quotations of official propaganda are clearly intended as satire ("A book attributed to a disciple of Darwin, showing that Spaniards are evolved from a more developed type of simian than the French"). Adherents of the regime, such as Beatriz's intended (a military officer) or the vain Professor Velasquez, are presented as ridiculous buffoons. One passage mentions a scrawled graffiti reading "Fascist Dickheads". It is mentioned that publication of leaflets for the clandestine metal-workers' trade union could lead one to years behind bars. Yet in another place a taxi driver is mentioned as outspokenly proclaiming to casual passengers his Communist sympathies – specifically his admiration for Joseph Stalin and for La Pasionaria – with no evident sign of apprehension. Absent is any reference to the Franco regime's efforts to suppress the Catalan language, as it did towards other non-Castilian languages throughout Spain, or to that language at all. In the depiction of the police there is quite literally a Good cop/Bad cop opposition, with the satanic, psychopathic Inspector Fumero contrasted to Officer Palacios, who is revealed towards the end to be quite decent and well-meaning. Following Fumero's death at the book's climactic scene, the clouds seem to disperse and the book moves smoothly towards a happy ending – symbolizing Spain's smooth transition to democracy following Franco's death in 1975. In the USA, Entertainment Weekly assigned the book a grade of A, describing the book as "wondrous" and noting that "there are places in which the book might seem a little over-the-top (doomed love, gruesome murders) but for Zafon's masterful, meticulous plotting and extraordinary control over language." Places in the book marked out both on the Barcelona city map and as a Google Earth placemarks file (in English) Website about The Shadow of the Wind (in Spanish) Author's English Website Author's Spanish Website Reviews The Economist (Subscription), April 1, 2004. The Shadow of the Wind Book Review by Barcelona Life New York Times Review: Eder, Richard. In the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. New York Times, Arts Section, April 24, 2004.
The Shadow of the Wind
A review, and links to other information about and reviews of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Find out more about and read an extract from The Shadow of the Wind, the bestselling novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Jan 25, 2005.. The Shadow of the Wind has 227604 ratings and 17842 reviews. Jamie said: There's probably nothing much I learned in the introspective ..