Apologies for the lack of non-book-review posts, I’ll write one eventually… I’m spending a lot of time reading on the train these days!
Book 9: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
I wanted a change of pace from my usual epic fantasy genre, asked friends for recommendations, and found this masterpiece. It’s the second five-star book I’ve read this year, and it well deserves it.
A father takes his young son to a place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. When you are first taken there, you are allowed to choose and take a book, and it is said it will have a special meaning for you. This boy chooses a book called The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax, which starts him on a quest to find the rest of the books by Carax. This starts him on an unbelievable journey filled with murder, magic, dark secrets and doomed love. It’s a story within a story within a story, brilliantly told.
My only regret is not being able to read it in Spanish. The language is already so beautiful in English–I frequently highlighted passages on the Kindle. One in particular that I liked, from the point of view of the boy, Daniel, about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books:
“After a while it occurred to me that between the covers of each of those books lay a boundless universe waiting to be discovered, while beyond those walls, in the outside world, people allowed life to pass by in afternoons of football and radio soaps, content to do little more than gaze at their navels.”
There were many more passages even more eloquent and poignant. If there is one book you read this year, this should be it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.