posted on 10 Apr 2024

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Originally written in Spanish and published in 2001, this world-wide blockbuster was translated into English in 2004. It is utter hokum of course but, having said that, it's fantastically gripping and readable nonsense. How could any book lover resist a story like this, especially if they have even the smallest grain of romance in their soul?

One day 10 year old Daniel Sempere's bookseller father takes him on a mysterious visit to a secret place known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books - a hidden archive of otherwise unregarded and abandoned volumes situated somewhere below the city streets and looked after by a small but select group of initiates. Daniel's fate is to 'adopt' one of these books and ensure it's future survival. On this visit he browses the shelves until he lights on the book he wants - or, it lights upon him. The book he leaves with is The Shadow of the Wind by an author called Julian Carax.

Daniel's increasing obsession with the book and its mysterious author takes him into strange and unsettling territory. There are lots of rather shrouded and arch suggestions of links between characters in the book and the Devil himself - a conceit that had also appeared in The Dumas Club a work by Zafon's compatriot, Perez-Reverte - and plenty of tensions relating to the civil war days that bubble away under the surface in the characters of Daniel's friend Firmin and his arch enemy Inspector Fumero.

It's a complex plot that I don't want to spoil for you but, at its heart, is a coming of age story. Daniel's initiation into the Cemetery of Forgotten Books marks his entry into adulthood and its complexities - including notions of love, hate, war, loyalty and - probably most importantly in terms of the plot - good and evil. The action takes place over a time period that gives Daniel a chance to grow into a man and even marry - allowing him to take the place of his father and to anticipate passing his secret knowledge on to his own children. And yes, before you ask, there has also been a sequel and evan a prequel.

I've now read this book three times and every time I do I love it - and then curse myself for wasting time on it. The popularity of the book is probably accounted for by the same thing that keeps me going back to it - the timeless nature of the fairy story and the elemental archetypes that it plays with. It's a tale of romance and jeopardy wrapped around an almost supernatural love of books and a fascination for the lives books sustain between their covers.

One day in the not too distant future I will forget that the book is spun out of air and sugar and I'll pick it up thinking 'you know, I just fancy a bit of this' - and I'll be lost again in and below the streets of Barcelona.

Terry Potter

April 2024