Goodreads Rating: 4.26 stars

Goodreads Summary:

The international literary sensation, about a boy's quest through the secrets and shadows of postwar Barcelona for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget.

Barcelona, 1945 - just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer 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 volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, 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 one 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.

My Thoughts:

It is rare when a book surprises me as much as The Shadow of the Wind has. This 5 star read has been on my tbr for almost 3 years. Why did I wait so long to read it?!

One of my goals for 2019 is to read the 10 books which have been on my tbr the longest. I put The Shadow of the Wind on my tbr basically the first day I started using goodreads religiously. The idea of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books was what clinched me in the synopsis. Little did I know, that the part of the story which drew me in wasn’t a big focus in the novel at all.

I applaud Carlos Ruiz Zafon for his storytelling ability. His characters are complicated and hard to read. I found them most intriguing. I also commend the translator Lucia Graves. The English version is FANTASTIC and it has to be partly due to her expertise in translating. Like wow.

I loved the complicated plot, eloquent writing style, and beautiful setting of this novel. I’m going to keep this book in a happy place and probably won’t read more of Zafon’s work because I don’t think anything else can measure up.

I’m planning on writing a full review of this book because I just have to. You’ll be able to read more of my thoughts when that is up!