The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In an early Barcelona summer of 1945, Mr. Sempere, an antiquarian book dealer, takes his ten year old son on a mission – to select a book from the labyrinthine rare bookstore the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The elder Sempere says “This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down the pages, its spirit grows and strengthens...According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear...today it is your turn.” After walking through the dusty shelves, looking at thousands of volumes, Daniel comes upon a book by an author he has not heard of – but he selects the book anyway. Or, does The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax select him? He first asks his father about the author, then another book dealer, then a third, finding out that his copy is the only surviving copy of the book. The rest have all been burned. Daniel is offered a lot of money for the book, but gives it instead to his first love. At sixteen, his heart is broken and he steals the book back, returning if for safekeeping to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books to prevent its discovery and burning. He cannot forgot the book, the mystery of why his is the only copy that remains, and persists in locating the author. Lives that seem to cross only tangentially have much more in common than what first appears. Leads appear and disappear, only to return in a different context and suddenly make sense. Daniel continues this search for Julián Carax for over fifteen years. A police inspector, who has been trying to locate the author for over twenty-five years uses Daniel hoping he will lead him to his prey. Prey being the operative word for a policeman that as a hired gun will do the nasty work of eliminating competition for whoever may temporarily hold government power in a post civil war Spain, be it anarchists, fascists, or communists. The end of the book loops to the beginning in an unexpected but completely satisfying way that will when you close the pages, realize The Shadow of the Wind has long since worked its way into your soul. One of the best books I've read in a long time, probably one of the best ever.