The book was on the top ten bestseller's list for Kinokuniya. God how shallow that makes me sound. I read mainstream books! Horror! And it's not fantasy for once! Well, not that my life centers solely on fantasy books, but you've probably noticed by now that I'm not the type to lean into more 'realistic' books so often, except when they're good. GOOD. Think Dan Brown and some of dad's Grisham books. This here, ladies and gentlemen, is no exception. With a well-rounded blend of horror, romance, politics and humor, 'Shadow of the Wind' is no ordinary Victorian thriller. Ambitious would be one word to describe it, as it attempts to tackle almost everything. While that may sound dangerous, Carlos Ruiz Zafon pulls it off anyway, and he'll keep you turning pages until you reach the end of the book (I know I took a long time to finish it, but that was purely because of the fact that I was busy. At home this would be the kind of book I finish overnight)
The story is narrated by one Daniel, the son of a Barcelone bookseller, who, as a part of family tradition is allowed to go to a place called the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' where he will choose one book and protect it for as long as he lives. When he does, he chooses the book 'Shadow of the Wind' written by one Julian Carax. As it turns out, the book is extremely rare, and it seems that a shady person seems to be after it, ready to offer money for it and known to resort to less than seemly methods to get his hands on Carax books which he later burns. This of course leads to the mystery, as to who this person is and why he hates Carax so. And at the same time, where is Carax? The author was said to have disappeared or died somewhere in France by the time the main character develops an interest in him. Not buying it, young Daniel decides to run his own investigation into the life and history of Carax, hoping to be able to track the man back into the present. Along the way he is helped along mostly by a beggar he helped off the streets named Fumero, who also seems to have a history of his own. This story is quite complex in the sense that there so many subplots that you'll get the impression that the subplots have subplots, and that may sound like it might induce headaches, but in all honesty, it won't.
In fact that is what keeps you turning pages, I think. The characters have so much behind them, and are so alive that it feels like you're feeling them. The effective use of the first-person narrative helps that point along as well, as the thriller takes time off to be a love story at certain moments involving the main character's relationship with his best friend's sister, and at the flashbacks involving Carax. The main character isn't particularly heroic, truth be told, but that's another reason why this book is good. The main character is human enough for you to sympathize for every time shit happens. The story develops by moving ahead with events, as well as filling holes in the history of the characters, tying up just nicely at the end. And although some may find the revelation to be quite predictable, it doesn't in any way hamper the style of this book.
If there is a flaw in this book, it would only be that the events tend to be uneven, in the sense that some things that could have been developed further weren't, like the concept of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books itself. But all in all, it still provides a satisfying, engrossing read.
God bless Lucia Graves for translating this book! (yeah, it was originally Spanish)
9 out of 10. And it probably deserves more.
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