‘This is a world of shadows, Daniel, and magic is a rare asset.’
The pages run, drip and heave with atmosphere, the writing is spell-bindingly descriptive, and every line is just as memorable as the one before. Starting in 1940’s Barcelona and not long after the Civil War has ended, its impact is interweaved and felt throughout, while the book’s tale is one of mystery, especially around the writings of Julián Carfax. His shrouded secrets unfolding alongside the main protagonist, Daniel Sempere, whom we follow from the young age of ten and into adulthood. His journey telling of childhood crushes, great friendships, deep romances, and near escapes as he tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Julián Carfax, and why someone is fixated with destroying all of his works with some demons being all too real. If this mystery deepened any further it’d be verging on a black hole.
The Shadow of the Wind is an epitaph to books, with Carlos Ruiz Zafón creating a world enthralled by literature, and captured by a passion to learn, read and gain more knowledge. This is displayed in large through Daniel, who, having grown-up around books (his father owning a small second-hand bookshop), is fully immersed in the discovery of literature, finding it provides an environment of times and worlds unseen, and even dreams one day of becoming a writer.
The novel starts with Daniel entering, for the first time, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books – a secret cavern filled with books that have been saved from oblivion, though the cavern is more like a ruinous mansion with a glass-domed ceiling. All at once it’s everything magical, creating in its reading images of moonlight beams, glowing lanterns and a never-ending collection of books. If this wasn’t enough, when it’s your first time visiting this “cemetery” you get to takeaway a book of your choosing, and Daniel has hit the jackpot when he selects a tome by Julián Carfax called ‘The Shadow of the Wind.’ This naming of a book about a book is not an unknown tactic in literature, but it’s still a nice touch – making you feel the work you’re holding is part of the story itself, making it even more precious.
On top of this it’s quickly made clear to the reader that this is no ordinary book, for even Daniel’s father – a bibliophile – does not know of the author, while a peer in the book world hastily offers a large sum of money to purchase it – his eyes gazing on it like a magpie faced with a bar of gold. But in owning the book you may have too high a price to pay. For soon the reader is told that Carfax, the author, has been missing for years, with it not being known whether he’s alive or not, his ending filled with aging rumours. Not only this but his books are being systematically hunted down by a man calling himself, Laín Coubert, the very name of the devil in Carfax’s work, and this devil still likes his flames – burning the author’s works as soon as he gets hold of them. In fact, Daniel has the only remaining copy of ‘The Shadow of the Wind’, its other prints already destroyed. But in a tantalising morsel, Daniel meets a young woman of astounding beauty who has read another of Carfax’s works ‘The Red House,’ but she does not own it, its contents read to her by an old tutor, for Daniel’s first crush is blind. But the sadness in her life is the suffering experienced by her father, who was imprisoned and killed for a Civil War he didn’t want to be a part of.
The moments of reflection on the Civil War come through in the scars of Barcelona’s architecture, in the memories left of a person, and the cruelties and opportunities sought by a murderous villain involved in both stories of the book; Daniel’s and Carfax’s, a symmetry being regularly seen between the two and recognised by the former. But it’s not just the time of the Civil War that was damaging, with its persecution having continued in the rough hands of the police and in the ever-watchful eyes of those in power. Despite this, there are voices that carry out small acts of hope, join together in comradery and give out kindness when they’ve had so little given to themselves.
Zafón’s writing has a similar feel to Alexander Dumas’ work, with mystery, romance, deadly villains and a poetic language, perhaps even more so. I wonder if the author recognised such inspirations, for he writes that Daniel’s father flashes ‘…a mysterious smile probably borrowed from the pages of one of his worn Alexandre Dumas romances.’
The Shadow of the Wind is as intricately and well-finessed as a good-quality jigsaw; each piece holding a single image that when put together forms a large artwork that you at first couldn’t see. All of this is done while carefully portraying a time in Spanish history, and recapturing the nostalgia of childhood; that moment when you read your first book, and fell in love with the possibilities of literature.
Other Notable Works by Ruiz Zafón:
- The City of Mists 2021
- The Cemetery of Forgotten Books:
+ The Labyrinth of Spirits (4) 2016
+ The Prisoner of Heaven (3) 2011
+ The Angel’s Game (2) 2008 - Marina 1999
Book Edition Information:
Publisher: Phoenix (imprint of Orion Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7538-2025-4
Cover Design: Ghost
Translation: Lucia Graves
Presented Edition: 2005 Paperback
Background image courtesy of Alessandra Montemurro on Unsplash
