What is better than a book within a book, stories within stories, layers deep of fiction? It goes without saying that any bookworm dreams of reading a book they can relate to and to live with characters who smell and breathe books for a living. Every avid reader would love to indulge in a novel about their own passion.
“The Shadow of the Wind” by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a novel that talks to every reader. It is a book that tells readers that fictional characters, too, have passion for books, their mysteries, and their secrets. It is also a book for writers who often suffer writers’ block and experience terrible feelings of the inability to express.
The story takes place in Barcelona, Spain where Daniel, 10, is taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in the heart of the old city by his father. Daniel is allowed to choose only one book from dozens of labyrinthine shelves that carry thousands of forgotten books, full of dust and abandoned words. He takes the book “The Shadow of the Wind” by Julián Carax. When Daniel begins to search for the secrets buried underneath this book and the writer, the thrill and suspense start to unravel.
With the development of events, it becomes almost impossible to put the book down. Every chapter of every part in the book leaves a story unfinished and incomplete. Sometimes chapters end abruptly to easily bring the reader to the next chapter. Zafón does not stop to make readers catch their breath. He knows how to take his readers into a journey that cannot be undone or left without endings.
One of the most beautiful aspects about the book is how every reader can relate to the characters’ words when they say something about books: “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.” It is also mesmerising how almost all the characters of the novel are in love with the magic of books, an even better solace for readers.
The Shadow of the Wind is a story of literature, mystery, thriller, love, friendship, and so many other genres. It will move you, break you, agitate you, and make you sympathise with the mistakes of many characters. It will do just about everything to make you immerse yourself in its events, words, and characters. This is a quotable book so it is good idea to be prepared with sticky notes for the beautiful words in it, and they are many.
Zafón has a beautiful, simple language to the eyes. It is easy to see that, even with the translation, the original language was smooth and subtle. He has astounding prose which flows magically and tempts a reader to read more because one could never have enough of prose. On the other side, the effort in the translation by Lucia Graves is clearly seen in the book. If a reader did not know that the work is translated, it is unlikely that they would have known that it is not the original language. A masterpiece stays a masterpiece whatever the language.
This book is a very easy recommendation to readers and writers who want to feel less alone in the world. In reading, one might feel accompanied by the many characters who relate to the love of books. And the feeling of being accompanied by a character, such as Carax, makes writers optimistic that writing is within them, that it never dies, it just waits in the shadows sometimes.
No words will give this book what is really deserves. And it is quite ironic that the books’ words that impact us the most are the same books that readers will never know enough words to describe their beauty.
This is a book to which to always return.
