"The shadow of the wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a Spanish writer born in 1964 in Barcelona. He has written many novels but the novel “The shadow of the wind” brought him worldwide fame.

The story is set in 1945 in Barcelona. The hero of his book is Daniel, a boy who lost his mother when he was a baby. When Daniel is 10 years old, his father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books that is hidden in the heart of Barcelona. Ritual that is repeated in Daniel’s family for generations requires that he chose one, only one book and become the guardian of this book. It is task for life. Daniel chose a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax.

Although, the novel draws from the first sentence, the proper action begins when Daniel grows up and decides to discover who Julián Carax was and what else he wrote. To his surprise, he discovers that someone has been destroying every copy of every book this author has written and he may have the last one that exists.

This novel has been categorized as mystery, romance, thriller and period epic. In this novel we have magic realism, pervasive secrecy, twisting and turning plots and moreover complex characterization.

It is an extraordinary book that is not to be missed.