The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hidden away in the back streets of Barcelona is the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and when ten-year-old Daniel Sempere is introduced to it by his father he's allowed to choose one book from the millions of dusty volumes stored there. His choice is "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julián Carax and when he reads it he's completely enchanted. It's 1945 and the world is emerging from war and Spain has the added burden of the memories of the Civil War. As the ...
...becomes an obsession to discover the truth behind the disappearance of Carax and the girl he loved. I delayed reading this book for quite a long time. It's a translation from the original Spanish and so often translations fail to live up to the promise. I was put off, too by the quote from the Daily Telegraph on the front "…an instant classic". I'm increasingly finding that book reviews in national newspapers are rarely critical and seem designed ...

SueMagee 15.01.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...is midnight in Barcelona, in the Fifties, and the story begins with a memorable description of the city , giving you the right mood to enjoy the fascinating plot you are going to read. ********** THE PLOT ********** Daniel is a young boy that lives alone with his father after his mother's death, some years ago. He tries to overcome this sad event with his imagination. One night, his father shows him a secret place where there are piles of forgotten ...
...to choose one of them. The aim is to look after it and prevent it from being lost.He will be the keeper of this book. Daniel choose "the shadow of the wind", not because he has pondered over it, but he feels that the book is calling him. He read the book, an after that he become fascinated by the author, Julián de Carax, and he tries to know everything about him. What he finds in his search is almost disturbing. And then he begins his own trekking ...

chemuyil 30.09.2006 (18.10.2006) · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

“The Shadow of The Wind” is Catalan author Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s fourth novel but it has been his breakthrough novel in the United Kingdom. Reading the novel it is easy to understand why. It has all the makings of a “cult” novel whilst being accessible and easy to read for the average reader as well. The story centres around the life of a young boy who loses his mother at an early age. His father being a bookseller it is the love of books which becomes ...
...a pretty close second. The young Daniel is taken to his father to a mysterious repository of books “the cemetery of forgotten books” and this is what gets the narrative moving. According to Daniel’s dad the idea is that everyone should remember one book, sort of sponsor it, because when a book is forgotten it dies. Same with people really! It is a good device although frankly it does tend to be forgotten as the novel progresses. Of course our young ...

JoePoirot 21.03.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...years. He released Shadow of the Wind in Spanish in 2001, meeting with wide success, selling more than millions of books worldwide. ''' ' The city is a sorceress, you know, Daniel? It gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it....' ''' I was drawn to the book that I saw standing in Waterstone's, the cover looked so mysterious and almost-philosophical that I felt compelled to purchase this. It was a great blind purchase based ...
...Barcelona is still wiping off the dust from the cruelties of the civil war and WW2, a young boy called Daniel Sampere who is a sensitive and thoughtful soul, who is shown by his father 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books', hidden in the heart of Barcelona. It is a labyrinthine library where they store obscure and forgotten works of authors from not long ago. He is given a gift of one book, any book in the entire place. He is drawn towards a book of ...

Annallon 25.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

"The Shadow of the Wind" was bought for me by a friend for which I am now very grateful as it's not the sort of book I ever would have thought of buying for myself, both from the point of view of the story line that the cover blurb promises but also because it is written by a Spanish writer of whom I'd never heard of before. Daniel Sempere is a curious 10 year old boy living in Barcelona, who is taken by his father one day to the "Cemetery of Forgotten ...
...book titled "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax. Daniel reads the book and is so enchanted by what he has read he decides to discover more about the mysterious author. As Daniel grows up and continues his investigation things take a sinister turn as he is pursued by a strange man who is determined to relief Daniel of his prized book. Daniel joins forces with the former beggar Fermin, a man of unlimited resources and together they begin to find ...

etala 25.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...what to make of it. The Shadow of the Wind is one of those books which I think is a slightly acquired taste, and you need to be in the right mood to read it. Perhaps a second read is the key. The story opens with the ten year old boy, Daniel, being shown a great secret by his father. A library of lost books, where the tradition is for new visitors, who only visit on invitation from another, to take a book. They then have a duty to keep it safe and ...
...takes a book, Shadow of the WInd written by a man named Julian Carax. Little does Daniel know, his selection leads him down a path where there is no turning back. His curiousity gets the better of him and he sets about researching Carax, to try and discover why the man's book never sold more than a hundred copies. The story winds through the lives of a number of different characters as Daniel follows the life of Julian Carax. The man's life is seaped ...

Billieuk 29.09.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a place in our memory to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget - we shall return. For me, those enchanted pages will always be the ones I found among the passageways of the Cemetery of ...
...of the Shadow of the Wind could never be truer than for the book itself. It is truly a masterpiece, and certainly my favourite read of all time. Zafon's epic follows in the life of Daniel Sempere from the moment he first steps into the cemetery of forgotten books, aged 10, and uncovers a novel of the elusive Julian Carax. We journey with Daniel as he grows up in Barcelona, and slowly begins to unravel the mystery of who Carax is, why his books are ...

Garth87 08.02.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...have to say this knocks the spots of the others. This book is about a young lad called Daniel Sempere growing up in 1940s Barcelona with his widowed father, a second-hand bookseller. One day Daniel's father takes him to the Cemetery for Forgotten Books, a cavernous place containing out of print and long forgotten books, where he is allowed to take one book and look after it. He chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. He falls in love with ...
...more about the author but discovers that Carax is a bit of an enigma and his enquiries have reached the wrong ears as someone is trying to find all of Carax's books and burn them. Daniel continues to keep the book safe whilst investigating into the mysterious life and death of the author. In his endeavors he is aided by former spy and beggar Fermin, who he hires to work in his father's bookshop. He also falls in love and gets beaten up as he tries ...

Essexgirl2006 30.06.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This is a story of the lives of two men one living and one dead who have many common points though they didn't meet each other. The young man comes across the dead men through a book found by pure chance in the cemetery of books of Barcelona. He will retrace the life of the dead men with all means defying all difficulties and dangers that he ever expected. The book found in the cemetery will become the principal element of the story. The book also ...
...the meticulous description of each character, its personality, its life and how he/she interacts with our two men. It's a beautifully written story about love. Love of son, love of father, love of missing mother, impossible love of beautiful lady, love of books, of one book, of one pen. All love stories strangely lived twice and in two different times, part of them took lace in exactly the same place and others in very different places. The author ...

sun2006 14.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

...This is one of the most original and memorable books I have read this year. The main character is a ten year old boy, called Daniel, who lives with his father in Barcelona, under Franco's reign. The story starts with Daniel's father, a bookseller, revealing to Daniel the secret existence of a huge library entitled the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. In the ancient tradition of this labyrinth, when somebody discovers it, they must choose a book that ...
...particular title, "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax and instantly knows that this is the book that he will take home with him. As he is reading the book, Daniel feels that the book actually chose him, and when he shows his Dad's bookseller friends his discovery, one in particular shows a more than casual interest in Daniel and his book. In fact, as the story unfolds, several people begin to show a sinister and intense interest in Daniel's ...

faybee 13.12.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

"The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruis Zafon is my favorite book I have read. What sets this book apart from all the rest is it is not predictable in the slightest. Everytime you think that you have worked out the mystery the story takes a turn and you find yourself re-reading the last few pages wondering how you could have missed the events that were to unfold. It's beautifully written, depth of characters, and descriptive narrative of Spain. Both ...
...love, from sadness to anger. The start of the book begins with Daniel as a ten year old boy and the reader is on the journey with him to both solve the mystery of the author, as well as learn about himself as he becomes an adolescent. By the end of the book you will wish you could continue learning about these characters through the remainder of their lives. ...

madgoose10 06.08.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This is certainly one of the best, most compelling and most memorable books I have ever read. It begins with a ten year old boy, Daniel Sempere, being taken to an old building in Barcelona by his father. There the secret existence of a huge, inspiring labyrinth library called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books is revealed to him. He must choose a book, one of these ancient volumes, to treasure and protect for the rest of his life. Strangely drawn to ...
...night, he knows he made the right choice and that in a way, the book chose him. However, all is not well in Daniel's world. There is suddenly a lot of unwanted interest in Daniel's book, with both friends and strangers showing a sinister kind of fascination with the novel and its author. He begins to realise that there must be a deeper story, buried in history and the city itself, behind this particular novel and the life of Julian Carax. As he ...

elliepotten 28.06.2007 (04.01.2009) · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Following the story of Daniel, the young boy whose choice of forgotten book leads him through a world of intrigue and danger, the Shadow of the Wind is certainly an enjoyable read. It's stake in the bookselling market is ever-increasing also, and soon one can imagine a Dan Brown scenario whereby poeple are buying this book believing its a seminal masterpiece... it isn't. The choice of the Richard and Judy bookclub, Zafon's novel seems to be one bought ...
...the next Captain Corelli perhaps, but this book's popularity is growing and yet it doesn't have the staying power of De Berniere's or Brown throughout, infact the novel becomes in turns dull and confusing as one story blurs with another, and uneccesary characters are introduced too frequently. The introduction of great characters (a devil like figure for one) at the beginning aren't maintained throughout and the central plot is blurred by pointless ...

roslynscafe 01.02.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The book itself is seen through Daniel, who at the beginning is a young boy (about 10 or 11) who lives with his father above the family bookstore. One night his father takes him to a 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' where he is allowed to pick just one book to look after. He chooses 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Julian Carax. This book takes over Daniel's life from this point on, taking him to places he never imagined. Along the way we meet some very ...
...to be very important in the end, Fermin who helps mend his broken heart, offers many interesting pieces of advice and becomes his best friend and sidekick. Beatriz, the older sister of his childhood friend Tomas, becomes his other reason for living besides the search for Carax. He does anything to be with her, include break into a mansion from Carax's stories (although he doesn't know it). The most intriguing part of the story is the mysterious faceless ...

lauraquaye 17.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hidden in the heart of an old Barcelona is the 'cemetery of forgotten books', a labyrinthey of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a father brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in post war Barcelona. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra Del Viento' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one ...
...who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's works in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind. As the novel develops, Daniels life becomes more and more intertwined with that of the young Julian, until the shocking climactic conclusion draws them ultimately together. This ...

ehallam 25.03.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon