I read this before my presence on Goodreads, my lovely friend Cheri recently reviewed this and I loved this so much…..it’s stayed with me through the years and I wanted to record it here. I have a strong urge to reread this sometime soon!! An amazing and beautiful book.

Dire. The writing is along Dan Brown lines, with flowery metaphors mixed until they become meaningless. From page 1: "My father sighed, hiding behind the sad smile that followed him like a shadow all through his life." How can he be hiding behind it if it's following him? Then on the next page someone is described as having "vulturine features", but in the following sentence he has an "aquiline gaze". This sloppiness is everywhere.

The whole thing feels like it desperately wants be seen as some kind of profound parable, but the only result is that the characters are just implausible symbols. They are too bland even to hate – unlike the book itself, which I loathed.

“Few things leave a deeper mark on the reader, than the first book that finds its way to his heart.”

Barcelona, 1945. Daniel Sempere comes across a book on his eleventh birthday. Upon reading the novel, Daniel is so intrigued by the beauty of this "forgotten" book that he goes about on a search for any other works of the same author: a mysterious character called Julián Carax. It is then that he discovers that Carax's books have been fast disappearing from the face of the earth, as if someone was destroying every single copy with the name of Julián Carax attached to it.

The Shadow of the Wind is a dark, mystery novel where there's secrets in every corner and grief, anger and vengeance in every other page. A 21st century masterpiece of gothic fiction.

This is the 3rd time I start this book. I do not know why but previously I never managed to pass the first 20 pages. I am so glad I tried again as it is a wonderful book that made its way into my favorite books shelf. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book which reminded me of the Club Dumas by Arturo Reverte which is another great book about books.

يالهوي علي جمال وحلاوة الرواية دي❤️❤️
من الروايات اللي صعب تتنسي..خطيرة بجد

Trying too hard. I wonder if I hadn't read this right after Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell if I would have liked it better. They were both trying to pay homage to the gothic/Romantic era writers, except that Strange and Norrell was brilliant, and this one was.. eh. I appreciated what the author was trying to do, but he didn't do it well enough to keep me reading. Yes, Romantic lit is full of cliche, but the thing is to do it in an intriguing way and with enough wit to keep your audience interested. This book did not have that balance. It had the formula, it just didn't execute things well enough, in my opinion.

To be fair, that could be because this book was originally in Spanish. It could have lost a lot in translation. I know it lost something, actually, because some of the sentences are rather awkwardly phrased. But Arturo Perez-Reverte's gothic-esque novels were also in Spanish, and they still had their magic in translation. So, I don't forgive this guy enough to finish the book. Which I didn't, by the way. Got about halfway through because I was hoping it would get better, but it was still not grabbing me, so. Onto the next!

Where do I begin? This is by far my favourite book of the year so far and I have already bought the second in the series so I can quench my obsession with Carlos Ruiz Zafon's gorgeous writing.

The story begins in Barcelona just after the Spanish Civil War, a young boy named Daniel lives alone with his Father and helps run the family bookshop. One day Daniel's Father takes him to a place knows as 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books' - a labyrinthine place completely packed with beautiful and rare books. Daniel is allowed to spend some time there and pick out one book that he can to keep, this is how he come across 'The Shadow of the Wind' - a gripping novel written by one Julian Carax.

After falling in love with the book Daniel sets out on a mission to find out more about it's illusive author, he also discovers that a mysterious cloaked figure is hell bent on destroying any remaining books by Julian Carax, including the one that Daniel now owns. We are then thrown into an epic adventure with twists and turns at every corner, Zafon tells such a brilliantly thought out story that you won't want to put down!

The themes explored in this novel are too many to list but some more prominent ones include; forbidden love, murder, adultery and family ties. Zafon spins such a intricate tale that won't fail to surprise! I laughed, I cried and also found myself longing to be working alongside Daniel as he uncovers the mysteries surrounding 'The Shadow of the Wind'.

Zafon's writing has to be one of the most beautiful I have ever read. I was constantly finding myself sitting back from the book just to take in the profound nature of what was written on the page. I was taken aback by the flow and poetic feel that permeates this novel, this all the more surprising as this book was originally written in Spanish, I can't even begin to imagine how striking this novel must be to those who can read it the way the Zafon intended it to be.

The characters were fantastically built up, my favourite would have to be Fermin, Daniel's partner in crime, who aids his younger friend in his quest - Fermin has to be one of the most intellectually funny characters that I have ever read.

The conclusion of the story was great and I can't wait to read the next in this brilliant series of books. A definite five out of five and I highly recommend to anyone who is a lover of books and literature surrounding books!

لم يحبنا العالم و لم يسعنا، ووسعتنا أرفف مكتباتنا و حيز غرفنا الضيقة.


تنبيه: هذه رواية لا تُقرأ علي عجل، و لا في فواصل بين أعمال مهمة



ستسرقك و لن تفلتك، ستفرغ منها و لن تفرغ منك.

تستحق أيها القارئ الشغوف أن تمتطي ظل الريح لترتقي إلى السماء فتلج في غيمة من الخيال القاتم وتغيب في غيبوبة من نشوة أدبية بالغة التأثير.

من حقك أيها القارئ الفذ أن تكافئ نفسك بكتاب عالي الجودة، لا تجد فيه عيباً سواء من ناحية اللغة، السرد، رسم الشخصيات، وتيرة الأحداث، أو وصف الزمان والمكان. كما ستذهلك براعته في مزج العمق مع الإثارة.

ليس كثيراً عليك أن تعيش أجواء قوطية في بلدة إسبانية، تجري تحت المطر المنهمر هارباً من قصر مهجور إلى مكتبة مندثرة، تركض بين الإزقة العتيقة لتصل إلى ميناء هادئ أو لتحتسي فنجان قهوة داكنة في مقهى منسي.

يحق لك بعد التنقل المضني بين ألوان الرواية أن تستقر في كتاب يضم كل أصناف الرواية بين دفتيّه. فبينما يكتنف الغموض ذهنك وتلهث بحثاً عن حلول للألغاز، ستمر على مواقف مرعبة وتدوس على قلوب متكسرة، ستضحك قليلاً على طرائف الشخصيات وستبكي كثيراً على مآسيهم الشخصية. يفوح من هذا المزيج عبق التاريخ، وتكسوه غلالة رقيقة من الجغرافيا.

لا أجد أجدر منك، عزيزي القارئ، لأقدم له هذه الكوكبة الفريدة من الشخصيات. مجموعة من البشر الذين يمكن أن تلتقي بهم على قارعة الطريق ولكن فيهم من التميز مايترك في نفسك أثراُ لا يُمحى. سيطيب لك المقام مع الصبي اليتيم العاشق الفضولي، الأب الحنون الذي يعيش وحيداً، المغامر السابق الذي أضحى مشرداً نصف مجنون، المخبر دنيء النفس الذي مازال يحمل جراح صباه، الكاتب المنفي كسير الفؤاد والرجل ذو الوجه الذي يسير بلا وجه ويترك رائحة الورق المحترق أينما ذهب.

ظل الريح كتاب له طعم وشكل ولون...ورُوح. ذلك النوع من الكتب الذي حتى وإن لم يكن نوعك المفضل، فستجد عسراً في اصطياد مثالبه.

Why did I leave this book unread on my shelves for 6 years?!

Read it!

Forgettable Indeed

Disappointing. The genre is uncertain without being creative. The story is complex without being interesting. The prose is increasingly trite as the book progresses. Improbable coincidences abound. The structure involves constant repetition rather than elucidation. I'm sure Zafon has the same editor as Donna Tartt, the one who allows the book to reach print about 60% too long. Talk about prolix! Don't let the first few chapters fool you. This book goes nowhere and has no discernible point except its own endless exposition. One in the eye for the listers of best sellers I'm afraid.

Ruiz Zafon writes and constructs his novel like an older man of literature; he knows all the tricks and codes. He read the classics of the 19th century, the serial stories mixed with gothic fantasy, the detective novels. He knows the Francoist past of his country and the geography of Barcelona; he makes us with this baggage, an initiatory story (of a teenager?). Add a sympathetic, earthy, and funny character (Fermin), others quite terrifying, a nod to Borges' Library of Babel, and voila for a bestseller. As a reader, I see them well, these strings and even these big strings, so it lacks a bit of that magic that makes excellent books, and then there are a few lengths towards the end, yet I admit it, I enjoyed reading this novel of more than 500 pages (anyway!). So here it is, 3.5 * (although I still haven't figured out what a half * is). Come on.