Genre - Historical Fiction

Recommended by a friend, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón proved to be an excellent read - different for me - but I enjoyed it very much. Daniel’s father, a book seller, takes him on a visit to the Cemetery of Lost Books in their hometown of Barcelona. Here Dan chooses a book The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. The reading of this book leads to a lifelong obsession - filled with mystery, horror, love, and tragedy. Daniel meets and learns about a fascinating group of characters along the way.

Zafón is a lyrical writer. In spite of my 35 years as a teacher of literary analysis, I find myself quite unable to find the precise words I’m looking for to back up that statement. His prose is poetic. Particularly when he is describing the setting in Barcelona, he creates a magical impression for me - smoke and mirrors - stars and sunshine. This book is not a fantasy and is populated by real - many broken - people who love and who hate, but the way he writes imbues it with a touch of unreality. Perhaps that is how I endure the hatred that is so painfully illustrated throughout the book. The plot is expertly crafted. As Daniel alongside pursues his fascination with the mystery of Carax and his book, we explore Barcelona’s recent past and the book’s present - gradually learning more and more about the characters and their society. Daniel is helped by his friend Fermín - forever his servant after Daniel and his father rescue him from the street - offering him a job and shelter. He is a crass buffoon with an endless appetite for food and women, but he is devoted and offers wisdom to Daniel again and again. He is hard not to love. Inspector Fumero is pure evil and his hatred spans generations. But Zafón also writes of love - some love that is enduring and some that isn’t - just like life. I appreciated very much the love that this little community shows to one another - like they do to Don Federico. For Daniel, this is a coming of age story - and he learns about love along the way.

I am especially drawn to books about the power of books and reading. Zafón writes, “Bea says the art of reading is slowly dying, that it’s an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.” For most of my teaching career I struggled to convince my students about the power of reading. We debated about whether authors really had messages to convey or if English teachers made them up. My stronger students and I talked about theories of criticism that suggested that the meaning is all in what the reader brings to the book. I was always trying to find the balance. I have asked myself again and again if great readers are becoming scarce. - but I always found great readers. I’m sure they’d love this book, and I’d love to talk with them about Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind.