Name : The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafn (Author), Lucia Graves (Translator)
Genre : historical-fiction, magical-realism, mystery-thriller
Story Outline : Barcelona, 1945—Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes one day to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.
Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a book from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the book he selects, a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last of Carax's books in existence.
Before Daniel knows it, his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness, and doomed love, and before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.
Why do you recommend it: The book's biggest triumph is its ability to be a fun, exciting and meaningful read without leaving your brain panting from excessive literary analysis. It has its nuggets of wisdom (a lot actually), but you don't have to expend a lot of effort getting to them. They are right there in the lovely narrative and lively dialogue.
My Rating : 5/5
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