The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón


The Shadow of the Wind it´s a real page turner. You can´t put it down when you start reading.
Everything started in Barcelona, Spain in 1945. When Daniel Sempere completed 11 years old he didn´t remeber his mother´s face. This fact made him very sad. So, his father decided to take him to a 'cemetery of lost books', a huge library of obscure and forgotten unknow titles. This library took place in the heart of the town and it was the place that Daniel had found the only title of The Shadow of the Wind from a writer named Julián Carax.
The interesting book let Daniel more and more excited about Carax life. He decided to search more about his life, meanwhile he discovered that someone had burned the last old titles. There was a mystery about the writer and Daniel wanted to find out.
Meanwhile, Daniel knew many characters that were related with writer´s life:
- Gustavo Barceló, owner of a library, very interested in bying Daniel´s book;
- his beautiful and blind niece, Clara Barceló, who revealed to Daniel the first elements about the mystery envolving Carax and all his books. At the same time, she became his passion and lover.
- Fermín Romero de Torres, a homeless with a mystery in his past life that had became his best friend;
- Nuria Monfort, a sad woman who kept in her big and darkness apartment a big and a painfull secret; and
- Javier Fumero, a cruel policeman who also wanted to persecute Julián Carax´s ghost.
While Daniel was dicovering more about Carax life, he understood that the mystery about Carax life is related with a love story between two youngs from the beginning of the century: Carax, a very poor man, and Penélope Aldaya, daughter from an important family in Barcelona high society. At the same time he had a prohihited romance with Clara Barceló, exactly like he had read on the book.
The wonderful environment of Barcelona is the main scene on the book. The writer described the beautiful Barcelona from the 40´s, with big avenues, big abandoned houses and a gothic atmosphere.