I came across this author and this book a few months ago; one of the members of my book club was off to Spain for a holiday so we decided we’d like to read something Spanish (in translation). It also seems appropriate to share my review now given that country’s recent victory in the men’s football World Cup. Although none of us had heard of this author, the book featured in a list of top one hundred books in Spanish that we came across somewhere and I note that it scores pretty highly on Goodreads too – more highly than David Copperfield in fact, and I would go so far as to say that in terms of complexity of plot, the darkness of the mood and the range of characters, there is a Dickensian quality to this novel.
The novel is set in Barcelona in 1945. The second world war is over but its effects loom large and the city remains very much in the shadow of the Civil War. Ten year old Daniel Sempere lives with his widowed father, a bookseller who is part of a close-knit community of other booksellers. One day, Daniel’s father takes him to the highly secretive Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a place known only to the booksellers where old, and once banned books are kept, and Daniel is allowed to choose any title to keep, part of his induction into a closed world. He selects The Shadow of the Wind by the mysterious author Julian Carax.
It soon becomes clear that the book is more valuable than Daniel could ever have imagined. Another bookseller, a dealer in rare books, explains to Daniel that Carax’s novels are thought to have all been destroyed and wishes to buy it from him. Daniel declines but this knowledge piques his interest and he sets out to try and find out more about Carax. He is helped in his quest by the indomitable Fermín Romero de Torres, a vagrant who is taken in by Daniel’s father, given a job and who turns out to be a man of fierce intelligence and spirit with a colourful past. Daniel and Fermin’s investigations also catch the attention of a mysterious and threatening stranger with severely disfigured features who tries to scare the pair into surrendering the book. As they uncover mysterious leads and start to piece together fragments of information about Carax (the brilliant son of a modest hatter) they learn that he disappeared in 1919 and that he was romantically involved with Penelope Aldaya, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. They try to get to the bottom of the mystery but in doing so they attract the attention of the malevolent Inspector Fumero, a deeply cruel man with many grudges. It is clear that the more they research the more that they threaten to reveal things which could be uncomfortable for those still alive.
This is a dark novel with a complex plot (which I did at times find tricky to follow) which the author manages brilliantly. The sense of place, post-war Barcelona as a down at heel, sometimes dangerous place, is beautifully evoked. I loved the characters, particularly Fermin, and I also liked how Daniel, a very young boy at the start of the novel, evolves into a young man. He and his father go through very typical challenges in their relationship, not helped by the fact that Daniel has not had a mother, and there is much poignancy in how the two relate to one another at different stages. The novel is at times almost a gothic ghost story with its dark forces, old crumbling mansions and wet, gloomy streets. But mostly it is about how the ghosts of our past, a nation’s past, come back to haunt the living, and whether goodness can prevail and hope return.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s follow-up was in fact a prequel to this novel The Angel’s Game, and then a sequel The Prisoner of Heaven. All have been brilliantly translated by Lucia Graves. I also listened to this on audiobook and the reading by Daniel Weyman was excellent. The other two novels are definitely on my TBR list. Sadly, the author died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 55.
I absolutely loved this novel and recommend it highly. It’s long so would be a perfect holiday book to lose yourself in.
Julia's books 