The Shadow of the Wind Reviews

• A Good Read That Could Have Been A Great Novel

  
  By A1RECBDKHVOJMW on 2004-05-05
  Reading "The Shadow Of The Wind" was both a delight and a disappointment. This novel had the potential to be excellent literary fiction. At times Carlos Ruiz Zafon's writing reminded me of both Gabriel Garcia Marquez's and Jorge Luis Borges' work. My expectations rose dramatically as I began to hope for more than a good read. Instead of great literature, however, the novel became an overlong and predictable bestseller, with a most original premise, some brilliant passages and many flaws.
  
  Sr. Ruiz Zafon's extraordinary idea of creating a Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinthian library where each book awaits someone to choose it and give it another chance to live by making it part of the new owner's life, gave me chills. There existed a possibility, as I read the first chapters, that I might be able to list this as one of my favorite works of fiction. Unfortunately, my disappointment when reaching the novel's conclusion overshadowed the book's many positive elements.
  
  Daniel Sempere is a young boy who fears he has forgotten the image of his dead mother's face. His compassionate father, an antiquarian book dealer, introduces him to the book cemetery. Daniel and Sr. Sempere are both memorable and unusual characters, as are many of Ruiz Zafon's other figures. Fermin, a former Republican agent who becomes a second father to Daniel, and Julian Carax, the author of the book Daniel selects, are both extraordinary men. Daniel's choice of books ultimately determines the course of his life, as he tries to discover if the author is still alive and solve the multitude of mysteries surrounding him. The setting, post-WWII Barcelona, is fascinating and Zafon depicts a brooding city in mourning as a result of the atrocities of both civil and world wars. The rich plot and various subplots, filled with passion, obsession and revenge, have such potential but become terribly convoluted and lose coherence at times. There is much too much information given about some of the characters, their rationales, and oddly enough, about an ancient, haunted house. Much of the mysterious ambiance is lost as a result of all the unwieldy description. Here, the concept "less is more" would have strongly improved the narrative. The entire novel could have been cut by a third, perhaps, and made a better, tighter book without losing any of the story or character development. I am a big fan of long, juicy novels, but the length should have a purpose and enhance the tale. The author has focused more on the melodramatic rather than the literary elements. Some may not care, as this is an excellent read. I did care though, as I see so much more potential here and hope the author lives up to it next time.
  
  I do recommend "The Shadow Of The Wind." Most will find it highly enjoyable, as did I. I just expected more.
  JANA
  
  

• A Novel Worthy of Victor Hugo

  
  By A2UVUM05TFRIX3 on 2005-06-07
  Be forewarned - Shadow of the Wind is not a book to be read slowly or taken in small dozes. This book is filled with cliffhanger after heart-racing cliffhanger. There are mysteries within bigger mysteries. You will find yourself reading far into the night unable to put this book down.
  
  Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a storyteller in the style of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas pere. Like Hunchback of Notre Dame and Count of Monte Cristo, Shadow of the Wind is an adventurous literary potboiler with a message to deliver. Ruiz Zafon intertwines a number of mysteries, each with a full cast of colorful characters, into a seamless, intensely exciting story.
  
  The book opens with 10 year-old Daniel's panic at realizing that he cannot remember his late mother's face. In an effort to distract and comfort him, his father takes him to The Cemetary of Forgotten Books to select a book of his own to guard and treasure. Daniel chooses Shadow of the Wind, a novel by someone named Julian Carax.
  
  Daniel falls in love with his book and seeks to find more of Carax's novels to read and seeks to find information about Carax. Daniel learns that Carax lived a singularly unhappy life and died under mysterious circumstances. He learns that, although Carax was a prolific novelist, there is not a single copy of any Carax novel to be found. Someone has been systematically seeking out and destroying all of Carax's books. Soon it becomes clear that more than one person is following Daniel, including a horribly disfigured man who goes by the name of Lain Coubert, a character in one of Carax's novels.
  
  Ruiz Zafon has been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. Ruiz Zafon's book is lighter reading and less symbolic than the works of those authors. However, Ruiz Zafon does employ similar motifs and themes as those used by Borges and Garcia Marquez. In Ruiz Zafon's story, there is more than one hero and more than one villain. Characters reflect other characters as if in a mirror. There are prophecies connecting characters to each other. Still other characters dream each other. Situations are far more complex than they seem. Even minor characters turn out to be far different than they at first seem.
  
  Daniel is one of the most engaging narrators I've come across in a long time and the character of Fermin is a continual source of enjoyment. There is a certain amount of low humor in the novel, but the vernaculars and dirty jokes serve a purpose. Translator Lucia Graves, the daughter of Robert Graves, has done a commendable job at conveying the humor, innuendo and beauty of the book without losing the distinctly Spanish elements of the story. Overall, there isn't a dry or superfluous passage in the book. It is a fine read and is highly recommended.
  
  
  

• a waste of time: just say no!

  
  By A29KC8AHD69XLE on 2004-11-27
  Believe it or not but I am shooting for an objective review here :-)
  
  But the subjective part first: I wasted money on this book because of the many
  positive reviews it has earned, the cool cover, and the utterly misleading
  comparisons to Borges, Eco, etc. Just because the book copies a labyrinthine
  library concept from Borges doesn't make the book worthy of the least talented
  disciple of Borges'. Early into the book I found myself struggling with the
  author and losing the battle: he has been successfully undermining my best
  intentions in finding another literary adventure in this volume. Each time I
  succeeded in psyching myself up to some interesting Atmosphere, he would
  strike back with some naive stereotypical character/scene and ruin my efforts
  back to square one. It felt such a loss of time...
  
  Now, at least a month later, after the dust settled, it STILL feels like a complete waste of time :-)
  Or perhaps the feeling is even more pronounced: I find myself mercifully
  unable to remember most of the "contents." For instance, even though the
  action takes place in Barcelona, I cannot recall any "mental views" of the
  city so poorly is it described; it feels like some totally 'generic' city. The
  same is true about the characters, except for the stupidest ones (Fumero), who
  continue to haunt me for their inhuman articiciality.
  
  I have to trash this book, unable to give it to anyone in good faith; the
  book's images of The Cemetary of Forgotten Books and of a character seeking
  out and burning books are more than fitting for the "Shadow" itself; it might
  have been Zafon's own subconsciousness oozing the unpleasant truth.
  
  Now the promised objective part. If you look at the reviews you can't help
  noticing many enthusiastic ones; statistically most people liked the book. Mr.
  Zafon has been successful in effectively targeting his market segment. I
  cannot therefore predict whether you will find the book worthless or a good
  read; for all its content-free simplicity the book does get engaging and can
  work as a commuter rail pastime (hence the 1 star)(Just joking :-) 1 star is
  the lowest at Amazon; there is no zero! Which means that even with all minimal
  ratings any book will average at least one out of five stars).
  
  For a taste of Real Literature I recommend "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by
  Haruki Murakami. Luckily, I discovered Marakami after the "Shadow"
  sub-experience and quickly regained faith in Literature as a lasting, deep,
  meaningful cultural experience.
  Amen.
  
  

• Very entertaining but comparing it to Marquez?

  
  By A3ITNZJ32UG7Q7 on 2004-09-15
  OK--if I was evaluating a thriller or a mystery, I would definitely give this book 5 stars. but it seems taht the book has greater pretentions--or at least some of the readers think so. While very well written and involved, with fully developed characters, atmosphere and historical background The Shadow of the Wind cannpt be compared to "A Hundred Year of Solitude." The melodrama and the stereotypical characters as well as the somewhat flat historical context separate this very interesting novel from teh masterpiece.
  
  If I have to compare it to another novel, the Shadow of the Wind reminded me of the Count of Monte Christo--with its coincidences, characters obsessed with revenge or treasure, villains and damsels devoted to unrequitted love.
  
  
  

• Long-Winded and Lurid

  
  By A2K7QWZONODE6Q on 2004-10-28
  Sad to say I thought this book, which I'd very much looked forward to reading, was terrible: murky and shallow. The identity of the dark 'mystery man' with the leather face, around which much of the presumed suspense revolves (and which takes the writer 350-odd gruelling pages to divulge), was only too obvious from the word 'go'. (One of the main reasons I kept reading was that I assumed my initial guess was too simple and that I must therefore be wrong. So I was left feeling cheated and annoyed.) The writing is indeed (as one critic described it) 'florid'. Though at time self-consciously clever, it is melodramatic (even gruesome in places), contrived, and devoid of joy, enshrouding the reader in an oppressive atmosphere. When I finished the book I felt depleted and only too relieved to emerge at last into the light of day.
  
  
• A song to stupidity
  By AFJVNVI118R0U on 2004-10-31
  I find this book stupid, time wasting, overextended, sweetmeated, with flat characters, three dimensional in its historic perspective, predictable, disturbing, and most of all, unsubtantially long...
  
  
• Terrible and phantasmagoric
  By A35LY2CPC0GYN3 on 2004-11-02
  I find this book very difficult to bear, since the characters are so flat, the plot so complicated, and so long in extension. I prefer authors that say more with less words. If there were more substance here, maybe I'd do a great effort to criticize more sympathetically.
  
  
• An unbearable and vicious book by a madman
  By A30GA349L2T3BJ on 2004-10-24
  Sincethe majority of the "reviewers" on this page say this book is the best novel they have ever read, that only confirms my belief that americans are naive, superficila and provincial. Ruiz Zafon, the author, has found a formula to delight american readers by providing them with unlikely stories, tortuous plots, cheap suspense and soap gothic drama.
  
  I think The shadow..... is an insult to human intelligence and an abuse of our time, time that we could be investing somewhere else, like in Eric Ambler perhaps?
  
  
• An unnecessary and overextended novel
  By ATKS7OI4K5MQ0 on 2004-10-10
  Most of the reviewers on this page say that the book "trapped" them from the very first page. I don't agree, but these Spanish readers have to furl to something easy to read and with no demand in concentration or analysis. I find Ruiz Zafón preciousist in his idiom, pedantic in his approach to his tortuous theme, and overextended in his length (more than 538 pages).
  
  Editorialists compare him to Borges as Ruiz Zafón intends to replicate the Argentinian author's idea of the labyrintic library. If Borges were alive I'm sure he wouldn't like this comparison. Where the Argentinian saves words with exquisite care and writes no more than the necessary in order that we savor each one of his scarce pages, the Spaniard writes pages and pages of rubbish as a possessed.
  
  True, his evocation of the Barcelona of the pre and post Civil War is remarkable, but this doesn't make this book the motive of such good critique as it has received.
  
  With so many really good and interesting books one wants to read and with such a short life ahead of us, why should we read authors like this. They say Ruiz Zafón lives in Los Angeles, California, and is preparing his next novel. God save us from that.
  
  You want to read a good thriller? Read Eric Ambler, the same Borges, Perec or LeCarré.
  
  
• pseudo-literature bores the devil out of you
  By A3832IR6BHYMOM on 2004-11-16
  extremly conscious of itself, this book stumbles badly as it tries non-chalantly to be profound, subtle and mimic "literature". horrible! luckily i checked this book out and didnt waste my money on its incredibly boring and deliberatly opaque plot.
  
  whats with the spanish anyway? all these books within books all written by the devil. arturo perez and now this guy?
  
  dont waste your time with this mess!
  
  
• "It was a dark and stormy night..."
  By A319KYEIAZ3SON on 2004-04-14
  When eleven-year-old Daniel Sempere awakens early one morning, screaming, because he has suddenly forgotten the face of his deceased mother, his devoted father comforts him. As dawn breaks, Daniel's father, a bookseller, takes him on his first visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret, maze-like library which preserves books "no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time." Each person who visits must adopt a book, guaranteeing that it will never disappear, and when Daniel sees The Shadow of the Wind, he knows it "had been waiting for me there for years, probably since before I was born." Captivated by this book by Julian Carax, Daniel tries to find out more about its mysterious author and locate additional novels, but he discovers that some other unknown seeker is also searching for Carax's books--in order to burn them.

  Lovers of the Gothic romance will be handsomely rewarded by the action-filled plot, as a sensitive and loving young boy comes of age while trying to unravel the mysteries associated with the elusive Julian Carax. A ghostly apparition in the misty lamplight, a faceless man who seems to have an inordinate interest in Daniel, a sadistic police inspector, and an incarnation of the devil himself all materialize as Daniel begins his search for information about Carax. Heavy, sensual imagery creates a sense of foreboding, while night-time mists, storms, and winter cold add atmosphere to sensational scenes and coincidences. A mysterious photograph, letters which go astray, false identities, an abandoned mansion with a sobbing ghost, a matricide, an evil stepfather, thwarted love, mysterious disappearances, revenge which never dies, and murder most foul all complicate the action. The evil characters are truly villainous, Daniel and his father are truly virtuous, and the women whom Daniel and Julian Carax love are pure and true of heart.

  Though the novel offers a good escape, it is almost six hundred pages long. Extensive background information for virtually all the characters (and even a house) gives more information than the reader really needs, and many scenes could be compressed. Occasionally, the mood is broken by mild profanity and bathroom humor. This romance does achieve more relevance than some others, however, by being directly connected to the world of books, with a setting that reflects the political climate of Spain after the Civil War and World War II. The characters are memorable, if relatively uncomplicated, and the parallels between Daniel's coming-of-age and the story of Julian Carax offer some sense of universality to this otherwise sensational melodrama. Mary Whipple
  
  

• Gothic soap
  By A2NE5KYLMRCHIR on 2004-09-11
  I've read the Spanish edition. I can tell you it's been a runaway success; most people I have talked to liked it. But I didn't. It's well written, and the characters are well described and likable, but, at the end of the day, it is a Gothic soap opera. Lots of unknown relations, ghoulish cops, disfigured good guys, mansions in the darkness during a hailstorm... 3/4 into the novel, you expect everybody to have been married and/or in love and/or be the second removed cousin of everybody else.
  The first half of the novel is the best, it hints to a Gothic-soap spoof; but, in the second half, it fully falls into being a Gothic soap.
  This novel owes a lot to "City of prodigies", by Eduardo Mendoza, which is far better.
  
  
• How You See It Depends on What You Bring to It
  By A1XOHJLA16DPZT on 2005-03-05
  That it's so tempting to read SHADOW OF THE WIND is a tribute to clever marketing. Comparisons to Marquez, Borges, and Dickens mix with gushing tributes from Stephen King and references to best-sellerdom in Spain. The literary come-on is hard to resist.
  
  In the end however, the way you respond to this book will depend on what expectations you bring to it. If you anticipate a reading experience worthy of those heady literary comparisons, you'll be sorely disappointed - Zafon is little closer to Garcia Marquez than Stephen King is. The closest he comes is having the temerity to give a minor character, a boyfriend of Beatriz Aguilar's, the family name Buendia, the prolific clan from ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. If you plan, however, on a fantastical romp through a mid-century Barcelona converted wholesale into a gothic swamp of ghosts, shadows, haunted houses, malevolent, revenge-seeking, jilted lovers, swooning virginal maidens, improbably picaresque characters, unbelievable coincidences, parallelisms, and twists of fate, and a host of pseudo-Freudian relationships, you'll love every minute.
  
  The story line of SHADOW OF THE WIND is so complex and convoluted, it's nearly impossible to relate in less space than the book's own 487 pages. Suffice to say, the premise is drawn from the search of a teenaged boy named Daniel for the truth about the fate of Julian Carax, the author of a mystery story (also named "Shadow of the Wind") that Daniel has adopted and read after his bibliophilic father takes him on a "coming of age" excursion to the aptly metaphorical Cemetary of Forgotten Books. Carax has apparently written a number of other books, all of them commercial failures, yet someone has been traveling Europe to find and burn every extant copy of Carax's works.
  
  With twists and turns that would make the Minotaur's head spin in his Labyrinth, Zafon spins multiple parallel tales of Platonic love, blind love (both literal and figurative), failed love, enduring love, filial love, forbidden love, and unrequited love. Through it all looms the mystery of Julian Carax. Is he alive or dead? Who is burning his books, and why? Who is the char-faced phantom? Why does the evil Fumero seek such hate-filled revenge? Will young Daniel ever find his true love?
  
  Zafon's book could be easily parodied or brushed aside as little more than a Barbara Cartland romance, but his writing is better than that despite being too often over the top. From the opening page where Daniel describes his mother's death as "a deafening silence I had not learned to stifle with words," Zafon mixes searing images and thoughtful observations with engagingly quirky characters such as Fermin Romero de Torres who capture the reader's imagination and heart like 20th century Sancho Panzas and Dulcineas to Daniel's idealistically questing Quixote.
  
  Unfortunately, these pluses are offset by unrelenting and heavy-handed atmospherics in which every page is marked by clouds, shadows, mists, flickering candles, twilights, smoke, rubble, ruins, twisted heaps, blood, and "glutinous darkness," and the like. Florid prose abounds: "The white marble was scored with black tears of dampness that looked like blood dripping out of the clefts left by the engraver's chisel. They lay side by side, like chained maledictions." Readers must also contend with two laughably miraculous conceptions, both occurring after first night trysts (a tribute perhaps to the ineffable virility of Spanish males?), and an unfortunately anachronistic request by a Barcelona doctor in 1954 for a "brain scan" of an injured Fermin (page 288).
  
  Net net, SHADOW OF THE WINDS is entertaining escapism with modest literary pretensions. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't expect it to be more than it is.
  
  
  
• The Critic's Rave Reviews are all Correct
  By ATSRX06HPNHL3 on 2004-05-25
  The enthusiastic praise and adulation which critics have accorded the english publication of Carlo Ruiz Zafon's first novel, "The Shadow of the Wind", may trouble the reader who begins the book, worried that little might match his expectations. After all, reviewers who compare a writer's work to a combination of Umberto Eco, or Jorge Luis Borges, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or other literary giants, compel the reader to expect to be transported when they open the book.

  Not to worry.

  Once started, the single downside for the reader will be knowing that the experience must end. The plot is quite complex, the jacket cover's synopsis will give the reader all he needs to know. The important thing is to read it slowly and carefully.

  A mystery story, a fairy tale, a love story (actually several love stories), a passion for literature, a treatise on politics, a bawdy tale, with love, hate, courage, intrigue, loss of innocence, humor, cowardice, villainy, cruelty, compassion, regret, murder, incest, redemption, and more. Add to this delicious mixture characters who come alive, and whose thoughts and feelings you will feel deeply.

  What a great pleasure to discover; an extraordinary first work, one which towers over the endless and repetative volumes which inhabit today's "Best Seller" lists. Read it, and become hypnotized.

  Edward Jawer
  Wyncote, Pa.
  ejawer@comcast.net
  
  

• An excellent book
  By A1INNPB410JFH2 on 2004-12-11
  I was surprised by the extreme negativity of some of the reviews. I was also surprised by some of the positive ones, seeking to make comparisons with other authors. My question is: why? Is it really important that a work remind us of Garcia Marquez or Carlos Fuentes or Juan Goytisolo or Ernest Hemingway or anyone else? I think the Shadow of the Wind stands well by itself and does not need to be similar to anything else. It is a unique double-story, folding in upon itself, with great characters and development. To me, the Shadow of the Wind was very much alive. I felt the ambience of the city and of the vivid characters, even as some of them seemed trapped in a dream.
  
  The reviews of the Spanish edition of the Shadow of the Wind are far more positive than for the English version. This makes me wonder about the translation. I believe it may not have been an easy novel to translate, and often some of the idiomatic dialogue sounded awkward and off the mark. Let's not forget that Barcelona is a city in which Catalan is spoken. From there to Spanish to English, I have no doubt some of the freshness may have been dissipated. It's hard to translate.
  
  NOTE: (added later) who keeps pushing all those "unhelpful" buttons for ALL the positive reviews? I hope you are having fun wasting your seeimingly abundant time with this idiotic behavior. Please seek immediate professional help for your peculiar little complex.
  
  
• A MANY LAYERED TALE - PRIME LISTENING
  By A3M174IC0VXOS2 on 2004-04-23
  "Blockbuster debut novel" has become an overworked phrase, however it's on target accurate when applied to "The Shadow Of The Wind" the first effort by Barcelona born Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Rights to this epic tale have been sold in more than 20 countries, and it has been #1 in Spain for weeks.

  Give a listen to the virtuoso voice performance by New York-based actor/writer Jonathan Davis, and you'll soon understand what all the hoopla is about.

  Zafon has chosen Barcelona in the year 1945 as his setting. Daniel, 11-years-old, is the only child of an antiquarian book dealer. Remorseful that he cannot remember his late mother, the boy needs something to occupy his mind. To this end, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a place that is carefully guarded and loyally tended by a group of the city's rare book dealers. It is here in this unique place that all the books forgotten by the world are kept.

  Daniel's father challenges the boy to choose just one book, only one of thousands but one that will have special meaning for him. His selection is "The Shadow of the Wind."

  Eventually, listeners, along with Daniel, meet the strange author of the chosen book, Lain Coubert. Yes, the book does have special meaning for Daniel, but it also exercises mysterious powers which the boy tries to unravel. He's helped in this quest by Ferman, a vagabond, and hindered by Javier Fumero, a dictatorial police chief who seeks to find out what Daniel has learned.

  Of course, there are women: Clara, both blind and beautiful, and Beatriz Aguilar.

  "The Shadow of the Wind" is a many layered tale consisting of mystery, thrills, history, romance. Everything a listener/reader looks for in a spellbinding story is presented with imagination and originality. We eagerly await a second novel from the gifted Mr. Zafon.

  - Gail Cooke
  
  

• drek...
  By A1B5YAR0X2VHK3 on 2005-03-04
  Reading this is a bit like biting into a gigantic cream-puff. One that somehow manages to be both undeniably stale and unreliably sweet. There it sits uneasily. You paid for it. Now you've got to eat it. Or do you? 500 plus pages of derivative drek. With all the luminous reviews one can only conclude that people no longer know what they are reading or why they are bothering. And those comparisons...oh my Lord.
  
  
• As good as a Caráx novel
  By A22MQ5SDVJJPOF on 2004-07-30
  Zafón's storytelling skill is quite remarkable, his prose doesn't just take you into the story, it completely transports you. In only a few sentances. Zafón crafts a world of remarkable visions and events--just a little bit magical (as all the best stories really are) but grounded in characters who live, breathe, and merrily cavort off the page and into your heart.
  
  But Zafón isn't just a strong storyteller with an exact sense of prose (and my compliments to the excellent translation!), Shadow of the Wind connects to people, it's almost a watershed. It's been a long time since I've been so excited about a book. I tell -everyone- to read it: best friends, my mom, relatives, people I work with--they're all hearing raves from me. And I don't do that lightly, but this book is joyous and sad, heartfelt and even wise.
  
  But most important of all is that Shadow of the Wind is true. It's one of those rare books where you don't just hear 'their' story, it becomes your story as well. To loosely quote Caráx, "it holds up a mirror and a window to your soul," because it teaches us about who we are--about the communities that bind and define you.
  
  And every single moment Fermín Romero de Torres was 'on screen' I had the biggest grins on my face, truly one of the great characters of literature.
  
  I've not a single criticism or reservation about this book, and that puts Zafón on an extremely short list with Mark Twain, Frank Herbert and Orson Scott Card.
  
  
• by far one of the best, if not THE best book I ever read
  By AW1G2QGUJK69S on 2004-04-17
  The plot is dense, the characters are very well developed, and the book is gripping from the very first page, such that you wont put it down until you have read the last sentence on the very last page. you cant get enough of the story, you keep on reading until your eyes are dry and hurt, but you wont put the book down. this is one of the books that I will likely read a second and maybe a third time. honestly, I think this is the best book I have ever read, certainly one of the best five books. the sad thing is, once you finish it, you are certain that the next book you will read will not be as good, and the one after neither. It is a jewel. I would give it ten stars, if there were. go buy it, take two days of, surround you with you favorite food and dive into that wonderful story which is set in post franco aera barcelona. certainly a book lover's story!
  
  
• An adventure in reading
  By AX54G5AL870Q8 on 2005-02-05
  THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Translated by Lucia Graves)
  
  February 5, 2005
  
  This book may well be on my top 40 list for 2005. THE SHADOW OF THE WIND plays two roles - it's the title of this book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, as well as the title of a book by Julian Carax, a character in this book by Zafon who becomes a focal point in the life of young Daniel Sempere.
  
  Daniel is taken by his father to a secret place known as "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" and finds the only book still available by Julian Carax. What Daniel wants to know is why all of Julian Carax's books have disappeared, and he spends his days and nights trying to solve the mystery. The more involved he gets, the more he finds himself in danger for his life. Along with his best friend Fermin, Daniel takes it upon himself, against the advice of more than one person, to find out what happened to Julian and the books that he had written over the years. Who was destroying the books? And who was Julian?
  
  The charm of this book is not just the dual stories of Daniel and Julian, but the many characters that fill the pages. Larger than life personalities, they add to the fantastic story that builds into the climax, a twist of an ending which I did not see coming. The book is rather long, but I think that anyone that can finish this book will find that they will find satisfaction with it. It was well worth my time, and I hope to read other books by this author. THE SHADOW OF THE WIND shows what good story telling is all about.
  
  
• A Bloated and Overwrought Soap-Opera of A Book
  By A1RAUVCWYHTQI4 on 2005-02-21
  This bloated Spanish novel boasts the most overwrought prose this side of a Harlequin romance in a mix of thriller, historical fiction, tragic romance, gothic horror, and most of all, soap opera. Set sixty years ago in postwar Barcelona, the story concerns teenage Daniel, whose discovery of an obscure novel is the catalyst for this sprawling adventure. That novel is "The Shadow of the Wind" by a Julian Carax, a marginal exile writer who left Barcelona long ago to live in Paris, only to return later in life and die in murky circumstances. Daniel, the son of a widowed bookseller, becomes obsessed with the novel and its author, and so tries to track down more information about him. This leads him into the path of a mysterious disfigured man who is apparently tracking down and destroying every single copy of Carax's books. Meanwhile, there are a lot of other things going on, such as Daniel's coming of age into adulthood, his Romeo and Juliet romance, and persecution by an policeman who harbors some kind of grudge against Carax.
  
  This all sounds fine, but the novel so filled with problems it's hard to take seriously. First of all, the highly self-concious prose is atrocious-florid metaphor piled upon metaphor. Second, the characters are all fairly stock figures. Daniel is a plucky precocious teenager whose speech is witty and clever far beyond plausibility. His eventual mentor/sidekick Fermin is a figure of Falstaffian excess combined with encyclopedic knowledge, a heart of gold, and the wisdom of the ages. Women in the book are beauties, some virginal, some femme fatalesque, but above all, beautiful. The policeman is simply evil wrapped in a black trenchcoat. Thirdly, the atmosphere is a pretty standard film noir stuff -- people lurking in long shadows, narrow streets, curfews, the oppression of the Franco era. No true sense of Barcelona, not even for readers who've been there. Fourthly, some of the revelations that occur late in the story will hardly be as stunning as the author must have intended. In this kind of book, when there's any hint of mystery about a central character's death, they're probably not dead. Or if there's someone who wears a mask, it's a good bet that when that mask is pulled off, the most unlikely face will be revealed. Finally, the profusion of plot points make for an overcomplicated, overdetailed, and over-the-top story which rambles on for far too long.
  
  The author has clearly been influenced by the much better works of his countryman Arturo Perez-Reverté, but this reads like a comic book compared to Reverté's engrossing and polished prose. Coming in at 500 pages, the book requires a significant commitment, but few will find it time well spent -- even those like me who enjoy historically-set mysteries.
  
  
• very disappointing
  By AB220Q4CD93V0 on 2005-12-23
  I have rarely read a book as bad as this: several times I wanted to hurl it across the room. Turgid claptrap! I only carried on because my reading group was reading it. However, out of the six women that attended, only one had lukewarm praise for it; the rest of us thought it drivel. I wish there was a libary for forgotten books: it would be a worthy candidiate!
  
  
• "Things from the past have to be left alone."
  By A3CH1KT8XQE8SA on 2004-05-12
  I'm very grateful that THE SHADOW OF THE WIND was translated into English or I would have missed out on this magnificent and splendid novel. I applaud Carlos Ruiz Zafon's ability to make both the plot and characters come alive on the page ultimately resulting in a satisfying reading experience. At the center of this novel is the young Daniel Sempere who, during a visit to the Cemetery of Lost Books with his father, takes home a discarded novel by unknown author Julian Carax. After becoming intrigued by the book Daniel sets out on a journey back to the beginning of the 20th century to uncover the secrets of the life of Carax. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the very end. As the novel progresses Daniel realizes that there are significant similarities between his and Carax's life.

  Accompanying Daniel on his journey is the womanizing Fermin who is full of espionage advice and the sadistic and brutal police inspector who has a fearful reputation. Despite the human characters I believe one of the effective characters in this novel is the setting of post-Civil War Barcelona, Spain. Carlos Ruiz Zafon creates a wonderful and intriguing atmosphere including rainy and dark nights punctuated with foggy mornings of the old cobblestone streets. While reading I couldn't help but envision the story in black and white similar to a classic movie. Presented is an alternate side of Barcelona not often seen in other works of fiction or films set in this city. All aspects combine to create an enjoyable book that I highly recommend.
  
  

• Flawed, but fun
  By A1MS3NGW49TR91 on 2005-01-31
  Although Mr Ruiz Zafón has published many other books, this is his first one to become a favorite. In many ways it seems like a first book. Other reviewers have said that it is overlong. I agree. Dickens can write an 800 page book that yet is shorter than might have been. This book suggests that is not Ruiz-Zafón's case.
  
  The plot as such can't be faulted. The book starts and ends with the same image: a boy and his father approaching an old building in old Barcelona, through the vanishing night fog. Many of the characters are excellent, particularly the tortured Julian Carax, and his nemesis, the police inspector. Fermin is also fun, but sometimes a bit too cute for an adult book. Barcelona is nicely portrayed in this story. Perhaps a map for non-Catalans would have been nice. The architecture is well-portrayed, in this neo-Gothic tale.
  
  So what are the defficiencies? Some characters (such as the blind pianist to whom Daniel, the protagonist reads, or Beatriz's brother, and even Daniel's father) don't really come together. They appear to me quite underused given their potential. In this sense, Ruiz is more an "atmosphere" type of author, rather than a "character" guy (like Dickens) or a "plot" guy (like Umberto Eco, to who he has been likened, somewhat spuriously). Noting a likeness to Borges is a bit insulting to the Argentinian sage. Not all books featuring enormous librabries are Borgesian. The book has also several factual mistakes, the most jarring of which, to me, was that Bogota was in Venezuela. Although Caracas was once a Colombian city, Bogota was never a Venezuelan one. One would expect a Spaniard to know this (Ronald Reagan once confused Colombia with Bolivia, but it is such mistakes are more annoying when the guilty party belongs to the same culture). I expect a Barcelonian would probably find many factual mistakes in the city's alleged architecture, but that's just a guess. In the Spanish language version, the author employs many jarring anachronisms. At one point he has Daniel saying to Fermin to "rebobine" (rewind, or repeat what he was saying), which I expect would not have been really used in the early fifties. My issue of the Spanish Dictionary of the Royal Academy (the standard Spanish dictionary), which is the 1992 version, does not even include "rebobine" as a synonim to "repeat". Of course these discussions may seem arcane to English readers, but a really good book does not make this sort of simple mistakes, which show that the book was dashed out without much care or editing. Good atmosphere is not all. Proper research, and care for language, are also important.
  
  This book, in fact, is not really very good, but it makes for amusing reading, perhaps in the context of a pool-side vacation. I would have given it 3 1/2 stars if that were possible. I don't think I'll re-read it, or give it as a present, but it was, all in all, a few hours of fun.
  
  
• Taste is relative
  By ACEFWMEVEQ2UR on 2005-07-03
  Personal taste is, of course, very subjective but I must say that after all the scintilating accolades this book has garnered I feel like I have been reading a different book all together.

  The Shadow of the Wind is as trite as it is convoluted. A lot of inplausible drawn out nonsense with sixteen year olds who behave like they are forty five and long pointless descriptions that go absolutely no where. One thing that really bothers me is why this book would want to use the voice of a turn of the century novel when it wasn't written nor does it take place at the turn of the century.

  Seriously folks...

  So...

  If Andrew Lloyd Weber is your idea of great theater, this is a book for you.

  Dostoyevsky?

  In your dreams.
  
  

• Could have been five stars
  By A13IRKEEPFTWFM on 2005-12-06
  Wow, this was an addictive read. I had heard great things about this novel from customers in the book shop where Iw orked, and I finally sat down this weekend to read it. I must say, I had trouble putting it down, even when I looked at my alarm clock and realized that it was four in the morning, and I had to be at work in four hours.
  
  Zafon has earned comparison to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but this is common for authors who write novels with any hint of mysteriousness in the plot who write in Spanish, and I found his style to be unique and refreshing.
  
  My comlaints are few, but large enough to dock one star from an otherwise great novel. First of all, the translation is extrememly weak. In the first fifty pages or so, I counted three idiomatic Spanish expressions that do not make sense translated literally into English, but for which there are appropriate English phrases, that were translated literally into English, and this was quite annoying. The prose was very wooden at times, and in the context of this novel, with its riveting storyline, I felt that I had to agree with Pablo Neruda: If you are going to translate a work, you shoudl improve upon it - or at least capture the poetic nature of the language and not just the words.
  
  My biggest complaint, however, is that after 400 pages of loose ends in the plot, the author resolves all of them with a 100 page letter from one of the characters. This was lame. I really feel that Zafon, having constructed such a beautiful story up until this point, had the capability of artfully tying up all of these lose ends with the in the storyline itself. This smacked of pure laziness of the part of the author. I would have gladly read another 300 pages of this novel, good as it was, if that is what it took to tie up these lose ends.
  
  Other than that, this was a great read. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Interesting, but not fully satisfying
  By A1A2YTFX2XC4O2 on 2006-03-13
  I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a mystery, but the plot is not very strong and the characters are not developed as well as I would like them to be. It has, however, certain charm, which led me to read it till the end... Maybe the key to this novel for me was that it is revolving around books, as the main character, Daniel, whose father is a bookstore owner (his mother is long dead) finds as a boy the unique book (supposedly, all the copies should have been burned) by the elusive author Julian Carax and starts to learn about his life, eventually fully sinking into it, mingling with Carax's friends and enemies. The setting of the plot in Barcelona of 1950's and the descriptions of the dark alleys forming almost a maze, mansions and dusty bookstores, are also an asset. But the novel is imperfect, it seems to be calculated to make it to the bestseller list, and, despite the efforts of the author to appear erudite, it is no match for, let's say Perez-Reverte's "The Club Dumas". It is a good entertainment, but if you have a choice, make it wait. I am curious if Zafon produces something superior next time.
  
  
• Perfectly written, wonderful translation!
  By A1POFVVXUZR3IQ on 2004-06-09
  When I first came across this book on Amazon, I was drawn by the title and also the subject matter. The glowing reviews only added to my desire to read this book, and I must say, of all the books that I've purchased through Amazon [and that's quite a few!], this was my best buy. The book reads like a dream,and reinforces to me the spellbinding nature of books. It is truly a beautiful work, and the language [wonderful translation by Lucia Graves] just makes me want to reread certain passages over and over again. The descriptions of Barcelona, the historical setting...the complex plot,Carlos Ruiz Zafon has indeed created a beguiling masterpiece. The platitudes can go on and on, but I leave it to future readers to judge for themselves. This book will be a tough act to follow, but I hope Zafon persists, and produces another enthralling work of ficton. Good luck!
  
  
• A Perfect Afternoon of Reading!
  By A2M4R8R6SU049A on 2004-11-06
  I agree with the reviewer who said this book was long-winded and lurid...and I just loved the book. Reading it was like being dunked in a pot of fudge -- so rich that it is really just too much. The story opens in 1945, but is set in a Barcelona that is just recovering from the loss of moral bearings during the Spanish Civil War. I loved this story about a boy who goes to the cemetery of forgotten books and becomes obsessed with finding out the history of the book he has chosen there, and why someone with the name of a character from the book is trying to burn all existing copies. I loved the sad love story, I loved the desperate friendship that the characters showed for one another. I especially loved the character, Fermin, the rehabilitated old communist, street bum, torture victim; everything he had to say was a joy to read. The one thing I didn't care for, or understand, was the murderous obsession of one of the characters. We are asked to believe that so much is set in motion because of one man's unexplained evil. Unfortunately,that is what is really asked of us. I don't want to give away any of the book's end (and it certainly demanded a suspension of disbelief -- and a belief that fate and coincidence have a place in good books), but if you enjoy spooky, lurid, full-blown tales about lost books and doomed love, etc, then you will enjoy this. It somehow misses being a "great book," but is certainly a very, very enjoyable one.
  
  
• Excellent Novel - Will Be A Classic
  By ATWX9WCEACYYW on 2005-02-11
  I loved this book. I found the plot gripping and mysterious, the characters interesting, the atmosphere dark and convincing. I couldn't put it down. I like a good mystery and this a good one. I guessed one of the main plot twists as well -- I think you are supposed to get that one early. It doesn't detract from the suspense. The characters held my interest all along. The writing (and translation -- I read it in English, not the original Spanish) is crisp and clear and yet uses a quirky and evocative vocabulary to paint a strong picture without being self-consciously "literary."
  
  The words that come from the mouth of Fermin are brilliant. He's is the crazy, wise, over-the-top sage. The parallels in the story are satisfying.
  
  Several reviewers have complained about the plot. What's not to like? It's complex, intriguing, twisted. And the story has a satisfactory resolution in the end. You also find out who the characters are and what happens to them.
  
  This novel was a huge best seller in Spain. I found the translation by Lucia Graves (daughter of Robert Graves) to be excellent.
  
  Some reviewers are picking nits such as errors in historical minutiae, Spanish grammar, and geography. (I have spent a lot of time in Europe and have been to Spain, but the "errors" didn't bother me any. One reviewer even admits that he is guessing that the must be errors of Barcelona geography.) It's a novel! When the complaints go to that low a level, it should indicate to you how good the book is overall. Other reviewers have unfavorably contrasted the book to G. Marquez's, "100 Years of Solitude." Well, OK, if you have to use a Nobel Prize winner to draw a constrast, that should also indicate the level this book reaches!
  
  I would compare this novel to, "Girl With a Pearl Earring," "The Way the Crow Flies," "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." It's very different from all of these; but it shares with them a evocation of mood, strong characters, and the ability to draw you into the book and make you want to keep on reading. And excellent read.
  
  

• La Sombra Del Viento/ the Shadow of the Wind (Autores Espanoles E Iberoamericanos)
• A Thread of Grace
• The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (P.S.)
• The Shadow of the Wind
• El Juego del Ángel (Vintage Espanol)