Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind

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 the book and tries to find others by him and 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 to solve the mystery of who is trying to erase Carax’s works. On a spooky level, Daniel also finds his life sometimes mirroring that of Carax.

The book is part mystery, part romance, part adventure as Daniel comes of age and comes to terms with events in his lives and those in others. It is a cross-genre book and I think it is well worth reading even if you are not normally a romance or mystery fan, as overall this is a good story, and cannot be pigeonholed accurately. The mystery part of this books twists and turns and you are never sure who the mysterious man is although there are several options so you go along for the ride with Daniel and hope he finds the answers he is looking for, for himself and for the memory of Julian Carax and his friends. Most of all, this book is written by someone who really loves books, about people who really love books, for people who really love books and is definitely worth a read. The best book I have read this year (so far).