The Shadow Of The Wind: Amazon.co.uk: Carlos Ruiz Zafon: Books

Review

· "If you thought the gothic novel died with the 19th century, this will change your mind¿ in Zafon's hands, every scene seems to come from an early Orson Wells movie¿ one gorgeous read." (Stephen King )

For the first time in 20 years or so as a book reviewer, I am tempted to dust off the old superlatives and even to employ some particularly vulgar cliches from the repetoire of publishers' blurbs. My colleagues may be shocked, but I don't care, I can't help myself, here goes. The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art. I couldn't put it down. Enchanting, hilarious and heartbreaking, this book will change your life." (DAILY TELEGRAPH )

Zafon's book is tremendously enjoyable... his story is impressively well-rounded. Humour, horror, politics and romance are skilfully deployed and.. the overall effect is hugely satisfying. Zafon, a former screenwriter, is particularly good at contrast and pacing: the book's 400 pages whip past with incredible speed. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

¿ what makes this novel so irresistibly readable is the emotional energy generated by the ups and downs of a big and varied cast of memorable characters¿. His conviction of the importance of literature in real life comes shining through¿ Walk down any street in Zafon¿s Barcelona and you¿ll glimpse the shades of the past and the secrets of the present, inscribed alike in the city¿s material fabric and the lives of its citizens." (Michael Kerrigan GUARDIAN )

Gripping and instantly atmospheric, this literary mystery opens in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a maze-like library of obscure tomes hidden away in Barcelona's Old City, where the hero, Daniel, is taken as a boy...But he little realises the evil which it will unleash and the devastating impact it will have on his life." (MAIL ON SUNDAY YOU MAGAZINE )

'For the bibliophiles there can be few more enticing-sounding places than the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books'...'The Shadow of the Wind' has been a publishing phenomenon in Spain and throughout Europe... Combining all the best elements of crime fiction with an investigation of the power of literature to shape our lives and imaginations, it is one of the most original and compelling stories of the past decade." (Nick Rennison WATERSTONES QUARTERLY )

"a potent mix: a coming-of-age story set in Barcelona's post-war years, an edge of fantasy, a tragic love story, and a labyrinth of mystery." (Ben Page THE BOOKSELLER. )

Zafon makes sure there's a robust serving of amor, and enough magic, murder and madness to keep even the most reluctant reader engrossed. Diabolically good. (ELLE MAGAZINE )

everything about The Shadow of the Wind is smooth. The language purrs along, while the plot twists and unravels with a languid grace... Zafon's novel is atmospheric, beguiling and thoroughly readable. (OBSERVER )

Set in the author's native Barcelona in the years after the Spanish Civil War, this gripping novel has the feel of a gothic ghost story, complete with crumbling, ivy-covered mansions, gargoyles and dank prison cells.... this is just the sort of literary mystery that would have found favour with Wilkie Collins. (DAILY MAIL )

Good old-fashioned narrative is back in fashion... his tale [has] a dramatic tension that so many contemporary novels today seem to lack. This is highly-sophisticated, fun reading that keeps you gripped and tests the brain cells all at the same time. What more could you ask for?" (THE SCOTSMAN )

This epic novel spent two years on the Spanish bestseller list. It's easy to see why.... Zafon is planning to write another three books around the same theme , and if they keep the pulse pumping and the pages turning as reliably as this fantastic piece of fiction, he will have a publishing phenomenon on his hands. (SUNDAY HERALD )

The translation by Lucia Graves is excellent, mixing formality with poetry, so the rambling prose occasionally sparkles with lovely phrases... The twists of the story which fold in on itself again and again like complicated origami, eventually reveal a simple shape. Love and deception are at the heart of the literary mystery - aren't they always? (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY )

This is such a racy, enthralling tale that it is easy to see why it spent two years on the bestseller list when it was first published in Spanish and Catalan... clever and expertly told... an extremely good read. (THE HERALD )

The book is written by someone witty and knowing enough to spoof himself while still being able to raise the hairs on the back of your neck... Carlos Ruiz Zafon's zest is infectious... He swathes his story with atmospherics... Barcelona becomes a place of doors opening into dark interiors of the mind... Behind all this is a fierce satirical energy against the tyrants and philistines of history... A game it may be, but somewhere in the shadows are the Caprichos of Goya. (THE ECONOMIST (US AND UK EDITION) )

Imagine a 19th-century novel deconstructed to its tiniest atom and rebuilt again using what we could call "narrative technologies" evolved during the 20th century. (southbank magazine )

Zafon takes readers on an obsessive journey into a dark world, revealing the stories behind one boy's curiosity and the strange, brutal truth that comes with it. (Good Book Guide, named as Editor's Choice )

'Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges...Ruiz Zafon gives us a panoply of alluring and savage personages and stories. His novel eddies in currents of passion, revenge and mysteries whose layers peel away onion-like yet persist in growing back... we are taken on a wild ride that executes its hairpin bends with breathtaking lurches." (NEW YORK TIMES )

wondrous...ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero. (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY )

· "A rousing adventure that reads as if Jorge Borges were writing in the mode of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose." (US ELLE MAGAZINE )

If you love AS Byatt's Possession, Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude... Eco's The Name of the Rose... or Paul Auster's New York trilogy... then you will love The Shadow of the Wind... 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. (THE WASHINGTON POST )

· "Set in post-war Barcelona, Zafon's tightly plotted thriller is sharp, sexy, gothic (perhaps even a little ghoulish), powerfully atmospheric, often funny and utterly unputdownable¿ The Shadow of the Wind is more than a book about a book - it's an inspired homage to the book, a celebration of writing, and an exhortation to read." (THE AUSTRALIAN )

"The Shadow of the Wind will keep you up nights-and it'll be time well spent. Absolutely marvellous." *starred review* (KIRKUS REVIEWS. )

this book had me in its grip. It ought to be in yours. (THE WORD )

Chosen as best recent book to take on holiday: "Carlos Ruiz Zafon's wonderfully chock-a-block novel The Shadow of the Wind starts with the search for a mysterious author in Barcelona in the aftermath of the Civil War and then packs in as many plots and characters as it does genres - Gothic melodrama, coming-of-age story, historical thriller and more. It is a deeply satisfying, rich, full read." (Michael Prodger Deputy Literary Editor, Sunday Telegraph )

Chosen as best recent book to take on holiday: "If you want to be totally gripped, I would recommend The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a superior thriller set in Franco's Spain. It revolves around the sinister disappearance of a novelist just as he embarks on a passionate love affair. Written with exuberance and humour, it's strong on atmosphere and consistently suspenseful." (Miriam Gross Literary Editor, Sunday Telegraph )

"One of those rare novels that combine brilliant plotting with sublime writing. It's about Barcelona again, and word of mouth alone is sure to make it a bestseller." Chosen as a "big read to make your holiday a success". (James Daunt SUNDAY TIMES )

The Shadow of the Wind is at heart an old-fashioned adventure yearn, thoroughly marinated in gothic romanticism. (Adam Lively SUNDAY TIMES )

a complex and absorbing detective novel... It is a tribute to Ruiz Zafon's skills as a Hollywood scriptwriter that he can create stunning set-pieces and bring to live a host of eccentric figures. (Raymond Carr SPECTATOR )

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"wondrous...ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero."

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

Enduring Classic 30 Sep 2011

By A. G. Lockhart

Format:Paperback

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is literary fiction in the truest sense. It is a novel about books - about one book in particular - and about the power of words to inspire, inflame and ultimately destroy.
10-year-old Daniel Sempere discovers `The Shadow of the Wind' in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and from that moment his life becomes entwined with and begins to follow a similar path to that of the book's author Julian Carax.
The drama is played out amid the horrors and uncertainties of Revolutionary and Post-revolutionary Barcelona, where class is everything and yet where power rests not only with rich families but with anyone sufficiently ambitious and unscrupulous to take full advantage of the vacuums that war has left. Daniel, the novel's narrator, is none of these things. He is just a normal boy caught up in events beyond his understanding and control, and which threaten to overwhelm him.
Amid the realities of time and place, however, Zafon's sense of humour shines through. He is able to see comedy in the grimmest settings and situations. Indeed, there are passages where the line between grim drama, comedy and even farce is finely drawn, as in many scenes featuring the novel's most endearing character, Fermin Romero de Torres, spy turned tramp turned bookshop guru. It is Fermin who shines a light on life's tragedy and shows us the real meaning of loyalty and friendship.
The Shadow of the Wind has its malevolent villain too, one who evokes shades of Hugo's Javert, though without Javert's morality or redeemability. Fumero is corruption and decadence personified, almost to the point of melodrama.
The novel is literary, for sure, but it is also an historical romance with gothic overtones. Julian Carax haunts its pages with an almost but not quite supernatural presence. Yet amid all the horrors and amorality of this war-torn society resides love that defies class and convention.
Daniel, vaguely reminiscent of John Ridd in Lorna Doone, is a self-deprecating hero. He confesses to being a coward yet he seems not enough of a fool to risk his life when the odds are so stacked against him. When it really matters - to the story - he comes through to his own cost.
Translations are tricky. The translator must not only translate the words but must also capture the mood, the emotion, the sense of time and place and the nuances of language of the original, and present them convincingly as the author's own. He or she must remove that `alien' feel and render the work as acceptable to the reader as a work in his or her own language.
In this translation, Lucia Graves manages to do just that. By the end, I felt I knew the Barcelona of the nineteen-thirties, -forties and -fifties; in her prose, I could feel the texture of the snow; I could be disgusted by the fetidness of the abandoned garrets or be awed at the ostentatious luxury of the upper-class villas; I could hear the clanking of trams as they made their way along the Avenido del Tibidabo or the peal of church bells across the city.
The Shadow of the Wind has all the elements of an enduring classic. It is a story that sometimes shocks but often makes you laugh. And just once or twice, it makes you shed a tear or two.

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

"Welcome to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books" 4 July 2009

By The Big Pink One

Ten year Daniel Sempere is brought by his father to a mystery book depository underneath the streets of Barcelona. Here all books are protected from being forgotten or destroyed. His father asks him to choose one book, and swear to protect it for the rest of his life. He picks up a copy of an unknown book by an unknown writer. He loves the book, and his curiosity leads him to investigate the mysterious life of the author. As he does so, he is drawn into a story of murder, betrayal, passion and revenge.

The Shadow of the Wind is an exciting and imaginative gothic thriller, set immediately after the Spanish Civil War, and written in the style of a children's adventure story. The narrative is fast and physical. The characters are colourful or grotesque. The intricate plot spans three generations. Some well defined themes run through the book: the power of literature, secret worlds, repression and injustice, and the conflict between duty to a family versus passionate impulses. However, the characters are a bit too baroque to be emotionally engaging. Some of the writing is very good, but I thought it fell short of its potential. In particular, I felt Zafon pulled away from giving the book the dark ending it deserves, and the final twists rely upon a rather dishonest deception on the part of the author. A fun adventure with some memorable moments, but which may leave you feeling a little flat.

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117 of 133 people found the following review helpful

Best novel I have read in years 17 Jan 2005

By MR NC SHACKLEY

I have never before said this about a new novel, but I have little doubt that Zafon's 'The Shadow of the Wind' will in time attain classic status. The novel tells about the experiences of a young boy named Daniel living in Barcelona, who one day innocently comes across a book called 'The Shadow of the Wind'. After enjoying the book, he is puzzled as to why nobody, even those knowlegable in literature, seem to know anything about the novel's mysterious author - Julian Carax. It is his curiosity to discover more about the life of Julian that sets him on the path to a thrilling but equally dangerous adventure.

The novel contains twist after twist as the story progresses, and the characters, especially Daniel's hilarious friend Fermin, are all likeable. Highly recommended.

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