The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is not a new book. It came out in 2001 and became an international best-seller, which is probably why, whenever I ecstatically mentioned it, someone said something like, oh, yeah – I read that 15 years ago and I loved it. So, yes. I’m late, but I got there.

This was one of those alchemical, magical reading experiences that reminds me of why I love books as much as I do. In fact, it’s the first time in ages that I’ve gotten “book tingle” . So, here’s what worked for me.

The plot is as tight as it is labyrinthian; the setting – Barcelona during Franco’s regime – is so effortlessly realized; the tone of elegant decay and creeping danger felt like cobwebs on the skin. Separate from objective “craft elements”;, there is a “Spanish-ness” that I found incredibly familiar and comforting, (my grandparents escaped Franco’s Spain). As I read, I  could practically smell the garlic simmering on the stove.

It’s rare to find a book that is not only fast-paced and plot-driven, but emotionally affecting. While the novel itself could best be described as a literary or historical thriller, Zafon spends as much energy on characterization as he does on pacing and plot. I connected with even the most tertiary characters, like a  nurse, unjustly warehoused in an old-age asylum, m because Zafon invited me to care.

This worked especially well with the book’s narrator / protagonist, a bookseller’s son named Daniel. The death of his mother endears you to him immediately, so that, when his father takes him to the gorgeously conceived Cemetary of Forgotten Books you want something special to happen. And it does.

The young Daniel chooses one book – The Shadow of the Wind by a brilliant but forgotten author named Julian Carax. Daniel’s quest to protect Carax’s legacy drives him deep into the past with a doggedness that eludes him in other areas of his life. There is an unspoken, latitudinal connection between Carax and Daniel that works quietly on how the reader engages the book. Their unfolding connection gives the novel much of its gothic pull.