I hesitate to even write this review. I just don’t think my ramblings could possibly do any justice to Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind.
But I suppose I’ll start with my reluctance to read it. About a year ago my best friend’s dad Twoey recommended it, but I just brushed him off and figured we wouldn’t have the same literary tastes. But when I started as a bookseller at BookHampton, people (and most importantly, co-workers) were still talking about it. So I made the leap and committed… to the paperback.
At about page 10, I was completely and utterly hooked. It came with me in the Long Island Sound and basically everywhere else short of the driver's seat of my car (when I was listening to A Mercy) until I finally stayed up ‘til 3 a.m. to finish it up. (Confession: I had a related nightmare that night.)
Ruiz Zafón winds his reader through the dark and windy roads of Barcelona, weaving together a plot that is as intricate and interesting as the arhictecture of the city itself. Its parallel love stories and mysteries between two sets of characters in two different times could have entered to the realm of cheesy, but Ruiz Zafón keeps them on the right side of literature. Not a detail spared and not a beat missed.
I’m going to stop there. Just read it. And (inevitably) fall in love. With Spain. With Julian Carax. With the Cemetary of Forgotten Books. With Daniel. But if I told you any more, I’d be robbing you of the chance to experience it in all its gothic glory.
And now I can’t wait to read the prequel/sequel Angel’s Game. Keep an eye out for the review!
Just picked up his El Principe de la Niebla (en espanol)- I'll let you know how it goes. I think his other books are geared for a younger audience than Shadow and Angel's Game, but I was craving a little Zafon and the bookseller was just too cute not to buy it from him!
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