The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Book Review of a Suspense Fiction by the Author of The Angel's Game
Aug 24, 2009
Although The Shadow of the Wind was written before The Angel's Game, the story it tells takes place after the events of The Angel's Game. The Civil War has come and gone in Barcelona, but the city's residents are still reeling from the brutality and betrayals of those years.
A Mysterious Author
The story begins with a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where young Daniel is encouraged by his bookstore-owner father to choose a book from the vast labyrinth of shelves. Daniel selects a novel called The Shadow of the Wind, by an unknown author named Julián Carax, and his life is forever changed.
Entranced by the novel he has brought home, eleven-year-old Daniel seeks help from an old bookseller to unravel the mysterious identity of Carax. Over the next years, he will become increasingly obsessed with Carax, and this will lead him into two frightening confrontations: one with a scarred stranger determined to track down and burn all of Carax's books, and another with a shady police inspector whose brutality during the war has left marks on many residents of Barcelona.
Fast-Paced Revelations
From this moment, Daniel's life becomes dangerous and complex. The pieces of the puzzle begin to form an image rife with violence, family secrets, and betrayals; moreover, Daniel learns that some of the participants in the Carax family drama are still intent on keeping those secrets at any cost. Even more terrifying for him, Daniel begins to discover eerie parallels in his own life and that of the doomed Carax.
As with all good mystery novels, neither people nor circumstances are what they seem in Daniel's world. There is always more than one version, and it is Daniel's discovery of these ambiguities that makes The Shadow of the Wind such a fascinating journey: the reader is kept guessing until the very end.
This sense of uncertainty and chaos feels right at home in the shadowy alleys and abandoned mansions of Julián and Daniel's Barcelona. Carlos Ruiz Zafón does an excellent job in describing post-war Barcelona: an atmosphere of hushed fear and self-censorship slowly giving way to normalcy with the passing of time.
Likewise, the book's characters are well-rounded: the haunted Julián Carax evokes great sympathy, and the young sleuth Daniel is not without a healthy sense of cowardice and self-preservation. He manages to work through it, though, and comes out the better for it by the end of the novel. Indeed, some of the best sections of The Shadow of the Wind deal with Daniel's coming to terms with his own development, and the realization that he has to stop focusing on the life of a stranger and start maturing.
Final Thoughts
The Shadow of the Wind will appeal to readers who enjoy literary mysteries and history. Like The Angel's Game, it is an erudite novel that nonetheless doesn't shy away from the gritty realities of war, corruption, and underground crime. In addition, Daniel's troubled youth and Carax's desperate love for his best friend's sister add a deep layer of emotion that offers a grounding sense of familiarity within the novel's sometimes shocking twists and turns.
About the Book
Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The Shadow of the Wind. New York: Penguin, 2005. ISBN: 978-0143034902. Carlos Ruiz Zafón's website.
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