I can't believe someone actually published this book. Even worse, in my opinion is the fact that this book is on the New York Times Bestseller List. How is this possible? It must only mean that there are a lot of people out there that think very differently from me. Don't you be one of them. Seriously. Don't be fooled by this book. It is insipid, lame, and poorly written.

First. The prose is so overblown that the author uses three adjectives for every single noun. Count them. He evidently was told that to be a writer you have to make everything as descriptive as possible, and then he decided that meant that each noun had to be modified three, always three, and only three times. Argh.

Second. The author must have looked up every word he could in a thesaurus and chosen the one that was most obscure or had the most syllables. Who is he trying to impress? Maybe it was the translator's fault? Maybe not. Either way, this style is used even when describing what the ten year old character sees and says. Which brings me to my next point.

Third. Every character in this book speaks with exactly the same voice. All you hear is the authors voice, not any different characterizations. And that voice demonstrates the problems I described in my first and second points. But that's not all. There is an even worse, and definitely fatal, problem with this book.

Fourth. This story was written as a mystery. Nine years lurch by as the character slowly tries to unravel the details of the main conflict. I actually don't have a problem with this in theory. Unfortunately, after three quarters of the book, and numerous new characters, the mystery is no clearer. So what does the author do about it? He has one of the characters write a 30 page (or so) letter to the main character telling him what really happened. Ta-da. The mystery is solved. The author is such a terrible writer that he can't even solve his own mystery. He has to use a cheap cop-out to clear everything up.

I can't respect that. Sorry. I can't believe so many other people have.

Boycott the book. Really.

2/2.5 stars. Look, it's not my thing to mince my words, so I'll give you my opinion and ultimately, you'll decide what to make of it anyway : as far as I'm concerned, The Shadow of the Wind is overrated and, to say the truth, a bit of a smokescreen. Despite its obvious qualities, I have to admit that I'm a little baffled of its status given that all the flaws, if found in some random YA book, would be called out without any doubt.



✘ Caricatures as characters, from Daniel the Romantic whose constant whining reminded me of some 18th Century hero (someone saves me from François-René de Chateaubriand, please), to the twisting-moustache villain whose mother, you guessed right, was a crazy bitch (mwahahahaha). As for the women (OMG, the WOMEN), they're either sexual creatures (often vile and manipulative, because of course *roll eyes*) or solely conceived for the Great Goal of Bearing children (or assuming their care). It's pretty simple, actually : the good girls are those who get pregnant or are desperate for it, and all women are portrayed through their looks. All of these characters were flat and forgettable in my book.

✘ Blatant sexism pouring through every page, and before you mention it, I KNOW, the society in 1945/1950 wasn't kind on women. I do know that, yet I don't believe that the portrayal of sexist behavior had to be so IN YOUR FACE. In the past I've read historical novels that let me furious about the way women were treated and categorized into little boxes (mother, virgin, whore, if you're asking) but in The Shadow of the Wind I never felt that the issue was handled or acknowledged, or barely (they do mention it in other men, but for me they were no better). It was just THERE. All the time, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to care about characters - Fermin and Daniel, for example - who constantly objectify women, when they're not busy expressing stereotypes like, "women can't do Maths", or, "women who let you touch them the first time are whores", etc, etc. I read the French translation, so I'm not going to write down the quotes, but they are EVERYWHERE. I felt like drowning.

✘ n  The instalove, anyone?n Far from me the intent of spoiling the story to you, so I'll just say this : there are three couples in this story, and the THREE OF THEM suffer from major instalove (the kind where people see each other once, talk twice, and share iloveyous). What the hell?! Again, if this book was called The Storm and The Thorns, and some generic YA bullshit, it would have annoyed me, because I cannot feel invested in a romance if there's neither growth nor depth. Why in the world should I feel differently this time? I do not. Honestly? I couldn't care less.

✘ The resolution of the intrigue did not satisfy me, because I found the way it was revealed rather lazy. Sure, I did not expect it, but after having remained in the dark during 80% of the book, I was a little disappointed by the avalanche of information that was thrown in my face, in a info-dumping fashion. Even with the interesting meta narration, it felt like such a cop-out.



✔ The atmosphere is darkly enticing, captivating, even, and for me the real MC is Barcelona. Indeed I couldn't look away from the fascinating picture Carlos Ruiz Zafón created, from the vivid slices of life put into black and white letters. I wish the descriptions of Paris would have reached this level of brilliance, but I didn't really mind. Albeit the difficult times described, reading The Shadow of the Wind made me want to come back there, and I probably will very soon.

✔ The writing, if not free of some cheesy figures of speech - but it could be the translation - is addictive and compelling. From the first page I was hooked, and my interest didn't falter before reaching the second half (but I already explained why).

► All in all, The Shadow of the Wind was a disappointment for me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but in the end, the story didn't convince me, and even the message - no matter how great it was, or wanted to be - felt a bit superficial because spoiled by the lack of depth of the characters.

*Shrugs*

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n  n    n  n

4.5/5 stars

An astonishingly engaging story within a story type of novel; the passion for books and reading introduced in the first chapter was just an appetizer before all the interconnecting twists and turns.

I’ve been having a lot of good lucks lately in reading books outside of epic fantasy—my favorite sub-genre. The Shadow of the Wind is a novel that I’ve heard so many positive things about for several years; it is one of those books that’s often recommended by readers, regardless of their main preferences sub-genre of reading. And now that I’ve read it, I can understand why it received all the critical acclaims. Sheer brilliance in storytelling and writing aside, The Shadow of the Wind is a book about books, a story about a story, and it would be difficult for readers—who obviously love books—of all kind of genre to resist the charm in the narrative. I’m going backward here because The Shadow of the Wind was published first, but if you’ve read and loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, I think you’re going to love this novel as well. These two books have many similarities in themes and their approaches to the passion for books and its mystery + coming-of-age centered plotlines.

n  n   

“In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.”

n  n

The Shadow of the Wind is the first book in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The story takes place in Barcelona, 1945, and here’s the short premise of the novel. On his eleventh birthday, Daniel Sempere wakes up and finds out that he cannot remember the face of his mother anymore. To cheer him up, Daniel’s father takes him to the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library that holds the books forgotten by the world, just sitting there waiting for the right reader to choose a book that will hold a special meaning to them. Daniel selects a book titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, and he falls in love with it immensely, then he seeks other books written by Julian only to find out that someone has been destroying every book written by the author. He may just be holding the last copy of the author’s work, and he’s trying to solve the mystery behind this bizarre incident.

n  n   

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”

n  n

As I mentioned, The Shadow of the Wind is a story within a story. It tells a coming-of-age story of Daniel Sempere as he tries to unravel the mystery behind Julian Carax and the disappearances of his novels. Despite this novel has been published for more than a decade—almost two decades in its original language—now, I somehow was able to approach this book knowing close to nothing; I plan to keep it that way for future readers who stumbles upon this review. Let me, however, say that I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I grew to care about the characters in this novel, especially for Daniel and Fermin—Fermin is hands down my favorite character of the book. Daniel’s story and the secrets he unravels continuously gripped me, Fermin’s personality plus his dialogues are so intoxicating, and most of all the friendship these two nurtured is incredibly heartwarming.

n  n   

“One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.”

n  n

I haven’t been to Barcelona, what I know of it, I see, learn, and heard from other people and other media. However, there’s a super atmospheric quality that’s so immersive to Zafón’s writing; when I was reading the book, it feels like I was truly there. I’m in a similar situation with my friends, in that I haven’t read the book in its original language, and because of this, I can’t gauge the accuracy of the translations. But as far as reading the book in English goes, the translation done by Lucia Graves flows absolutely well. There were a few flashback sections where I found the book to be slightly uneven in its pacing, but for the majority of the novel, Zafón’s prose and Graves’ translations were extraordinarily compelling and accessible. I’m serious; I lost count on how many passages I highlighted because they were so well-written and relatable to me.

n  n   

“Bea says that 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.”

n  n

Picture: The Shadow of the Wind by Vincent Chong



There’s simply no scarcity of insightful and wise remarks within this novel that brims with resonating themes of growing up, love, found family, friendship, and books. In equal measure, it’s also filled with revenge, loss, and tragedy. The Shadow of the Wind is an amazing piece of literature that begins and concluded its story in a richly satisfying way. Do note that although this is the first book of a quartet, the novel worked wonderfully well as a standalone; I’m actually surprised that there are three more books in the series. If any one of the sequels is as good as this one, then I know I’m in for more unforgettable stories to read.

n  n   

“I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.”

n  n

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This novel started off very promising, but soon devolved into bad writing and ridiculous plotting. I finally had to abandon it after 200 pages because I didn't want to waste another minute on it. I'm going to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and wonder if this was poorly translated from the Spanish.

The story is set in Barcelona in 1945. What I liked about the beginning was the idea of a young boy being drawn into a secret world of readers. Daniel was 10 when his father took him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which was a dusty and hidden library, and he was told to choose one book to protect. Daniel fell in love with an out-of-print novel and tries to find out more about the mysterious author.

"Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later -- no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget -- we will return. For me those enchanted pages will always be the ones I found among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books."

Daniel soon finds out that the book he chose is valuable because it is the very last copy -- all the others have been burned. There's no point in summarizing the rest of the plot because it quickly becomes absurd. Absurdity is always relative, of course, and the degree to which disbelief must be suspended varies by genre. This book was grounded at the beginning, but the mystery aspect was so silly that it became farcical.

I had high hopes for this novel but was very disappointed. I thought it might be similar to the modern gothic style of "The Thirteenth Tale," which I really liked, but the bad writing made me quickly tire of it. There were too many cliches, too many florid descriptions and too many long speeches from preposterous characters.

Looking at reviews from GR friends, I see everything from 1 stars to 5 stars on this book. It is possible that if I come back to this at another time and in another mood, I may like it more, but for now, it's just OK.

Even better reading it the second time round. This book has definitely entered my list of one of my favourite books of all time!

n  "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you."n

Well, I wonder then what part of me I saw inside this book - a book I adored despite its imperfections, despite its frequent veering into melodrama, despite (or maybe because of?) its densely Gothic atmosphere.

Whatever it was, it was enough to make me lose myself completely in the rich setting of mid-20th century Barcelona, in the world of seductive dangerous power of literature and perils and passions of young love, and the contrasts of idealistic innocence with the weariness of experience, all against the rich tapestry of the city full of beauty and secrets and vividness, all told in a lavish idiomatic language that makes you forget you're reading a translation.

And over all of this gothic surreal passion turned into words hangs a real grim presence of those in power who can come after you whenever they please, and who will try to silence you whenever they feel like it.

n  "I told her how until that moment I had not understood that this was a story about lonely people, about absence and loss, and that that was why I had taken refuge in it until it became confused with my own life, like someone who has escaped into the pages of a novel because those whom he needs to love seem nothing more than ghosts inhabiting the mind of a stranger."n

This is really a story within a story. Narrated by a young Daniel Sempere, it chronicles his transformation from a child to a young man in a Francoist post-war Spain, his loves and obsessions, his brushes with the world of mysteries and reality - both of these worlds equally dangerous and fascinating. But Daniel is really a medium through which we learn the heart and soul of this book - the story of Julián Carax, a man who wrote a book that finds its way into Daniel's life, a man whose past and present shape the course of all the events in this narrative, Julián Carax who seems to be the embodiment of both driving force and destructive force in the pages of this novel.

n  “There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite.”n

This book left me in an enchanted daze, and I'm still struggling to figure out why or how. What was it exactly that made it so easy for me to overlook the imperfections and blemishes of this story - the not-uncommon sexist male gaze, the telenovela-like melodramatic developments, the sometimes strange choices of inserting exposition into the narrative flow.

n  "A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise."n

And the only answers I can find are these - it was the fantastic engrossing atmosphere and the sincere unabashed love of literature, combined with the language that sings to you in all its exuberant beauty.

The atmosphere is built on a classic Gothic setting. The foreboding darkness haunts the story, complete with foreshadowings, strange haunted old mansions, dark secrets waiting to be unearthed, feverish passions and dark past tormenting the characters, emotional epistolary confessions, menacing villains, and dark stormy nights in abundance. Shadows are everywhere, and things lurk in them, be sure of that. And destiny seems to reach in with its meddling hand and place things in necessary to it order. And the tortured, passionate love stories - oh yes, they are here, too.

n  "Memories are worse than bullets.”n

And yet the framing setting of 1950s grounds the Gothic atmosphere, forces it into reality. And the pervasive sharp humor makes the story quite self-aware of its own stylized nature, making the elements that can easily turn annoying into fascinating bits instead.

n  "Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens."n

Daniel, a son of a bookshop owner, has a special connection with books - after all, he was introduced by his father to the mysterious place known as Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a place in the heart of Barcelona where abandoned books are stored, a place from where he is allowed to 'adopt' a book - and what calls to him is the book by an obscure writer Julián Carax, a Barcelonian himself, a man long-dead, a man whose remaining books are hunted and burned by a mysterious stranger.

n  "I began to believe that Julián was not a man, he was an illness."n

It's Julián Carax, his elusive past and present, the enigma that surrounds the man and is impossible for Daniel to resist that form the cornerstone, the centerpiece of this novel. Julián, a tragic hero of the Gothic novel, whose life and character are slowly revealed bit by bit, until you realize you are just as enchanted with him as the people who have met him seem to be - and all that without Julián ever making an appearance himself. And by the time we see the warning signs of Julián's single-minded destructive obsession, it is too late to turn back, and we begin to understand the strange obsession with him that more than one character carries.

n  "There are worse prisons than words."n

This book is an example of the journey, not the destination. The plot twists are not pivotal. The reveals that come are not that important, and there are plenty of clues for the reader to come to the conclusions well before they are revealed.

What is important, however, is allowing yourself to step into the world Zafón creates, into the early- and mid-century Barcelona, under the shadow of gothic buildings, into the world that no longer exists.



Lovely, lovely book; not perfect but engrossing and beautiful, and well-deserving of the attention it has received. Reading it is a quite an experience. 4 stars.

n  "Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget — we will return."n

One of the best books I read in these last years. Beautifully written, you can smell the books from the pages, fascinating intriguing story, you just don't know how to predict the ending.

- أتت قراءة هذه الرواية مع الحدث الأليم الذي شهدته بيروت والإنفجار الضخم الذي وقع في المرفأ ليحولها من عروس الشرق الى أرملة تتشح بالسواد، الى مقبرةٍ للناس البسطاء المنسيين الذين ارادوا الحياة في مستنقع اضحىت الحياة فيه مطلباً صعباً ومستحيلا!! وبذلك اكتسبت القراءة بعداً عاطفياً يجمع ما بين بيروت وبرشلونة، بين الموت هنا والموت هناك...

كان قلبي ينبض كأنما اراد ان يفتح ممراً في صدري ليهرب منه

- "ظل الريج" الرواية الأولى من رباعية كارلوس زافون، "ماتريوشكا" بنفسٍ اسباني، قصة تميط اللثام عن اخرى، تتوازى، تتداخل تتقاطع بأسلوب سلس وأفكار ذكية (بمعظمها) على لسان الشخصيات المنتقاة بعناية، بخلطة من الغموض والتشويق الكلاسيكي وبمزج ما بين القصص القوطية والروايات الحديثة وبإستعمال تقنية روائية بسيطة وسهلة.

- تبدأ القصة حين يذهب دانيال مع والده الى مكان غريب (وهو احد المكانين اللذين يذكران بالقصص القوطية) يدعى مقبرة الكتب المنسية حيث يقوم دانيال بإنتقاء كتاب "ظل الريح" لكاتب مجهول يدعى خوليان كاراكاس، فتنطلق رحلة البحث عن هذا الكاتب، من هو؟ حياته؟ أعماله؟.. يستفيد دانيال من عمل والده (صاحب مكتبة) وأصدقائه وتبدأ رحلة البحث المشوقة..

- قام زافون بعمل مقاربة او موازنة بين حياة كاراكاس وبين حياة دانيال، مازجاً ما بين الحاضر والماضي، مستعيناً بشخصيات لربط الحكايتين (مثل المحقق ونوريا)، هذا سمح له بضخّ الأفكار عن الحروب وفترة الدكتاتورية والإنتهازية والقتل والبرجوازية. كما انه بنى على الكثير من المتناقضات: الحب-الكره، الموت-الحياة، الظلال-الأحلام، الملاك-الشيطان، الفقر-الغنى...

ثمة سجون أسوأ من الكلمات

- أفضل الشخصيات كانت شخصية فيرمين دي توريس، المتشرد الجاسوس الحذق، وأعتقد انه أكثر الشخصيات اقناعاً في الرواية والتي استطاع زافون ان يرسمها بأبعادها الثلاثية! لكأنه اتى ببرنارد شو ووضعه في الرواية! شخصية لاذعة، مضحكة، مبكية، ساخرة ستحبها وتتعاطف معها وتزعل لمصابها وتضحك لسخريتها وفرحها.

الكلام مسلك الحمقى، السكوت حجة الجبناء، والإصغاء زينة العقلاء

- الحبكة كانت جيدة، الغموض كان جيداً لكنه ليس متقناً: فشخصياً هناك مفصلان كانا واضحين، الأول اختيار اسم "الشبح"(اسم السيطان في الرواية) والثاني اللقاء في القبو بجانب القبرين. هذان المفصلان فضحا الغموض بالنسبة لي. كما ان الحبكة تصل بدانيال الى حائط مسدود تقريباً بعد عدة سنوات فيقوم زافون بإسقاط تلك الرسالة الطويلة التي وضعت النقاط على الحروف وشرحت كل التفاصيل له! وهذا كان مقتل الرواية، فرغم إمكانية حدوث هذا الا انه طريقة ساذجة في اكتشاف الأحداث بالإضافة الى ان بعض الأحداث في الرسالة لم تكن لها اي فائدة سوى المعلومة (كاراكاس وبينلوب أخوة على صعيد المثال).

إن المصادفات جراح على وجه القدر

- ختاماً، القصة ممتعة رغم المطبّ الأخير، وما زاد من جمالها، برأيي، الترجمة الرائعة لمعاوية عبد المجيد وعدم إقحام نفسه في مقدمة تؤطر القارئ في إطار نظرة المترجم، فترك رأيه، اي كلمة المترجم، الى ختام الرواية وهذا يحسب له.

n  
n  خذني اليها.. ان جاءني ملاك الموت فأريد ان يجدني بين ذراعيهاn  
n

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تحديث 18/8/2020:
لا زالت الرواية بتفاصيلها في رأسي، ولا زلت مستمتعاً بها، رغم مطب الرسالة، أعتقد انها تستحق النجمة الرابعة

"The Shadow of the Wind" is the first and best book in Zafon's tetralogy, "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books." This is Zafon's love letter to books, specifically his love letter to obscure, forgotten books which have nearly completely faded from the collective human memory.

Fortunately, the Cemetery of Forgotten books exists to store the last remaining copies of these forgotten but not completely forsaken books. When someone visits the Cemetery of Forgotten books for the first time, they choose one of these books to "adopt." Or, more precisely, the book chooses them.

This is the story of one such bond between a book and the young boy the book has adopted. The boy is captivated by the mysteries of the book and its author and determined to unveil the true story behind his chosen book.

This whole book is eloquently written. The plot is full of twists and turns, with a dark, gothic setting in the streets of Barcelona, with sprinkles of political intrigue and magical realism.

This book captured my heart. The only downside is that the sequels all paled by comparison, since none of them could match the same level of eloquence and originality as "The Shadow of the Wind." But that shouldn't detract from readers' enjoyment of this masterful first volume, which also serves as a standalone story.

The fact is that I’ll never be able to write a real review for this book. Here is why :

1.tI’m not good enough.
I’m not now and I’ll never be. It doesn’t matter how many books you have read or how smart you are, you’ll never be good enough for that. You won’t be able to find exact words and it’s not just you. Only person who can is the author himself, but I think he already said everything he wanted.
Don’t believe me?
-t“Books are mirrors - you only see in them what you already have inside you.”
-t“The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.”
-t“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”
-t“There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite.”
-t“In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.”
Do you now?

2.tIt’s impossible.
I’ll try to describe it. It’s not the same feeling but the result is. You know that moment, or better said that feeling, when you see someone who means a lot to you and you have that beautiful feeling inside of you. Now try to describe it. You can’t? I know.

3.tAnd last but not least....
Please allow me to quote the author:
“Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later — no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget — we will return.”
And this is mine.