مرحباً بكم فى برشلونة النسخة الحداثية من المدينة العتيقة باريس تستطيع أن تقول أنها ظل باريس الجديد أو باريس فى ثوب جديد
ملحوظة الصور الواردة لمدينة برشلونة فى هذه المراجعة هى من تصويرى مطلع العام الجارى 2018 ولا أدرى إن كنت محظوظاً أو قليل الحظ أننى زرت المدينة فى نفس العام الذى قرأت فيه روايتين عنها أولها الأصل لدان براون وثانيها وليست آخرها بإذن الله ظل الريح .. فأظن أحياناً أننى كانت ستتاح لى الكثير من الفرص للتعرف أكثر على المدينة بعد هاتين القراءتين العظيمتين إلا أننى زرتها قبل قراءة أياً من الروايتين
n  n
فى الصورة السابقة يعبر علانيةً 5 من أصل 8 من سكان البناية الصغيرة تلك عن رغبتهم فى انفصال إقليم كتالونيا وعاصمته برشلونة عن التاج الملكى الإسبانى فلماذا يطالب الكتالونيين بالانفصال؟
وكم كان الثمن الذى دفعته برشلونة خلال قرن من الزمن عاشته تحت ظلم الأنظمة الإسبانية المتعاقبة؟ فى سبيل تحقيق هذا الحلم الذى تحقق ولو على الورق بعد زيارتى تلك بأيام معدودة.
مرحباً بكم فى برشلونة قبل تسعون عاماً!!
عاشت إسبانيا تحت حكم الجمهورية من العام 1931 وحتى العام 1939 ، ثمانية أعوام لم تذق فيها برشلونة طعم العدل أو الراحة ولم تغمض لأهلها جفن لإندلاع الحرب الأهلية بين الموالين للجمهورية الإسبانية الثانية والقوميين المتمردين بقيادة الجنرال فرانشسكو فرانكو المدعوم من الديكتاتور الإيطالى بينيتو موسولينى والفوهرير الألمانى أدولف هتلر، هنا تبدأ روايتنا بثلاث قصص متقاطعة:
n  n
هل جربت أن تقع فى متاهة من المرايا لترى إنعكاسك إينما إلتففت وتراه فى جميع الاتجاهات يحاصرك ويؤدى نفس حركاتك بطريقة قد تثير غيظك وأحياناً رعبك هذه هى المتاهة التى ستنزلق فيها بمجرد البدء فى قراءة هذه الرواية:
أبطال القصة الأولى خوليان كاراكس وحبيبته بينيلوب آلدايا وحبيبته نوريا مونفورت
n  n
خوليان ذلك الشاب الهادئ الوسيم الذى ولد لأب يعمل بصناعة القبعات وذات يوم يتعرف صانع القبعات برجل المال والأعمال ألدايا الذى يتولى ابنه خوليان بالرعاية بعدما وجد فيه من الذكاء والفطنة ما شجعه على ذلك وفى المدرسة تعرف خوليان على أصدقائه خورخى وميجيل وراموس وفوميرو وتبدأ رحلة خوليان بين الحب والفقد والرحيل إلى باريس هرباً من ظلم الجندية الإجبارية فى زمن الحرب وهناك فى باريس يكتب معظم أعماله وينقلها إلى دار نشر فى برشلونة ولا تحقق رواياته أى نجاح وذات يوم يقرر العودة إلى برشلونة فلماذا عاد وأى مصير كان فى إنتظاره؟
أبطال القصة الثانية دانيال سيمبيرى وحبيبته كلارا برسلوه وحبيبته بيا أجويلار
n  nهنا دانيال يساعد والده سيمبيرى فى إدارة دار بيع للكتب وذات يوم يأخذ السيد سيمبيرى ابنه المولع بالكتب والكتابة إلى مكتبة - مقبرة من الكتب المنسية - ويطلب منه أن ينتقى كتاباً لنفسه فيختار دانيال رواية كاراكس الأخيرة ظل الريح ويقرأها فى ليلة واحدة ويعجب بها وبكاتبها ويقرر أن يبحث فى ماضى هذا الكاتب المجهول الذى لا تحقق رواياته أى نجاح ولا يعرف عنه أحد إلا القليل ومنذ تلك اللحظة يقع دانيال سيمبيرى أسيراً لرواية كاراكس ويقع فى الكثير من الأزمات يفقد خلالها حبيبته كلارا ولكن يقع فى حب أخت صديقه توماس وتبدأ القصتين فى التشابك العجيب.
أبطال القصة الثالثة فيرمين روميرو دى توريس وبرناردا
n  n
فيرمين هذا الرجل الذى ذاق أصناف العذاب خلال الحرب وبعدها وبعد أن سقطت الجمهورية فى يد الطاغية - الذى حكم بلاده بالحديد والنار خلال فترة جاوزت 36 عاماً حتى وفاته – سقط خلالها كثير من المعارضون وأصحاب الرأى فريسة فى يد طاغية لا يرحم، ولكن القدر كان رحيماً بفيرمين فأعاد السيد سيمبيرى وولده إلى فيرمين الحياة بإلتقاطه من الشارع وتوفير عمل مناسب له وكذلك مسكن وراتب يكفيه متطالباته والأهم من ذلك عائلة تهتم لشئونه ويقابل فيرمين برناردا ويتبادلا الإعجاب وتتعدد لقاءتهما ولكن القدر يعيد اللعبة مع فيرمين من جديد إذ عاد شبح الماضى من جديد يخيم على حياة فيرمين بعد أن حظى بعائلة وحب يملأن حياته التعيسة.
فوميرو
يمثل هنا فوميرو النظام الغاشم الذى حكم إسبانيا قرابة 36 بعد ثمان سنوات فقط قضتها إسبانيا تحت حكم الجمهورية، فوميرو هو ذلك الشاب الذى نشأ فى عائلة فقيرة ولكن أسعده حظه بأن يخدم والده كعامل فى مدرسة يتعلم بها أبناء الطبقة الراقية فتعلم بذات المدرسة التى يخدم بها والده وعاين الفوراق الطبقية الشاسعة بينه وبين زملائه وأضف إلى ذلك أنه كانت له أم تحاول أن تزج به بين أبناء الطبقة العليا وتحرضه على ذلك إلى نشأ الشاب متغطرساً وعنيفاً وما أن سنحت له الفرصة لكى يفرغ كل الكبت والحقد والغل الذى كان يكنه لهذا المجتمع لم يتوانى لحظة.
وها هو رأيه فى القراء .. غالباً هو نفس الرأى الذى يضمره أو يُعلنه كل حكام بلادنا من العسكر ممن أبتلانا الله بهم:
n  n
وهذه هى الطريقة التى يتحدثون بها فى كل زمان ومكان .. انت تعارضنى إذاً أنت نفس شريرة تلبست جسد إنسان:
n  n
ولم ينس زافون هنا "المواطنون الشرفاء" متمثلة فى السيدة مرسيديتاس ورأيهم فى القراء:
n  n
ولم يكن حال التعليم فى إسبانيا آنذاك أفضل حالاً من مدارسنا فى هذه الأيام .. فأصحاب المال أصبحوا يسيطرون على المدراس الخاصة أما المدارس العامة فقد تكفلت الحكومات المتعاقبة على سحقها تماماً:
n  n
هنا بدأت الحكاية وأنتهت بين شارع لاس رامبلاس والبلاثا –الشهير- دو كتالونيا و32 شارع تيبيدابو، على أمل أن ألتقى بزافون مرة أخرى فى لعبة الملاك قريباً بإذن الله:
n  n
n  n
بلاثا دو كتالونيا
n  n
شارع لاس رامبلاس
فى النهاية يجب أن لا أنسى الترجمة الرائعة من المبدع معاوية عبدالمجيد ... أحسنت.. من الترجمات التى ستظل عالقة بالذاكرة.
كمال صبرى
1/10/2018

This is a book about books, a story about stories. It starts and ends in a library of sorts, themes and plots are echoed across decades, tied together by actors who find their roles changing, and by a pen that links two cycles of the story and has its own tale that started before and goes on beyond.

"the art of reading is slowly dying, it's an intimate ritual, a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.”

Zafón is a master of prose, he is eminently quotable even in translation. The story is set in Barcelona and stretches from the turn of the 19th century to the sixties, though focusing most heavily in post civil war Spain recovering in the 40s and 50s. It's a bitter sweet story, as much about the slow acceptance of loss as about fighting against it or finding happiness.

"Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice it."

The setting is vividly brought to life. Many of the characters live in poverty or close to it, and the ventures into Paris bring to mind Orwell's descriptions. Barcelona is the star of the piece though.

"one of the many places in Barcelona where the nineteenth century had not yet been served its eviction notice"

Shadow of the Wind is a love story, or two love stories, or several love stories to be honest. We focus on Daniel, a young man growing up, and becoming obsessed with the story of another man, a writer whose young life (decades earlier) is unfolded for us through Daniel's investigations. Both of them finding difficult and potentially tragic love.

"Her voice was pure crystal, transparent and so fragile I feared that her words would break if I interrupted them."

The Shadow of the Wind has a lot to say about books and reading, rather less to say about the business of writing though.

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

"Novels, as everyone knew, were for women and for people with nothing better to do."

It's a complex interwoven plot, not without threat and violence, with a series of reveals that undermine what you think you know.

A fascinating and lovely read, and a nice break from the fantasy books that I have read almost exclusively over the last 5 years.

Give it a try!



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This book SEEMED like it was going to be so good - a dark mystery set in post-war Barcelona, with tragic love and a place called The Cemetary of Forgotton Books... what's not to love? (To be honest, I'm not a fan of tragic love, but everything else at least seemed great). But while I was vaguely curious to see how everything pieced together, I didn't like or care about any of the characters, and dialogue like "Sometimes I no longer know who you are," kept me at a distance. The book never went beyond just seeming like a book I would like, and I kept wanting to like it a lot more than I did.

The Shadow of the Wind is wonderfully atmospheric, descriptive and a totally compelling read.

Barcelona 1945 and the aftermath of the Spanish civil war. An antiquarian book dealers son called Daniel mourns the loss of his mother. His father takes him to the secret and mysterious cemetery of Forgotten books, Daniels choses a book called the Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax and when he sets out to discover the authors other works, he makes a shocking discovery and here the story begins.

A historical fiction novel that for me read more like a gothic style mystery which is my favourite type of novel. I really enjoyed the sense of time and place in the novel and enjoyed reading about landmarks in Barcelona which I really want to visit on finishing this novel.
I love books about books and this one is unique and different, It’s a quiet sort of novel and yet it totally absorbing and a really well crafted mystery.

A lot of characters to keep track of in the novel, and at times I felt I struggled with keeping track of all the characters but this but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.

A Gripping tale, suspenseful, atmospheric and extremely well written novel for lovers of books about books.

It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.

I absolutely loved this reread and this is one of my favourite books ever. This is the book I recommend to people when they ask.

The plot is immersive and includes mystery and intrigue, love and hate, enemies and lovers, friendships and families, loss, hope, revenge, tragedy, and comedy. This book is filled with beautiful prose that kept me ensnared in its plot and atmospheric in its setting of Barcelona.

This is about a book (“The Shadow of The Wind”) that a young boy, Daniel, finds in the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books and his quest to find out more about the author and the authors other works. However, he discovers that the authors previous works strangely keep being bought and being burned. As Daniel keeps getting closer to the truth, finding out about the dark and tragic past of the author and of those that knew him, someone else is also watching- a dangerous enemy feared by those in Barcelona.

This book was gothic and atmospheric, painting a vivid picture of Barcelona (a place I’ve never been but the authors descriptions lend to the imagination). Also, the enemy in this is one of the most memorable villains- so much hatred and disgust wrapped around this character. I loved the friendship between Daniel and Fumero, with Fumero providing several comic lines that had me laughing.

I wish I could visit the fictional Cemetery of Forgotten books with its wall-to-wall, and ceiling-to-floor, bridges and steps, full of books. It would be every book lovers dream.

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.

ايه يا عم الفُجر ده!! يخربيت الجمال يعني :)

Una maravilla de libro.Me la he pasado tan bien con Fermín y el conjunto de su verbo,su frescura, su atrevimiento y sus ocurrencias mundanas,que incluso ya le estoy extrañando. No deseo escribir reseña alguna porque seguramente las haya por doquier y de una alta calidad descriptiva.Un excelente libro, y un grandioso/genio el poseedor de la pluma que le dio vida a esta historia.Es una gran lástima que este se haya ido tan joven...tan temprano.Bravo, Zafón...dondequiera que estes.

n  “It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams
that live in the shadow of the wind.”n

It should be a crime to write a book as beautifully as this. Characters are so beautifully written with a plot that drives forward every second of the way but still manages to let you enjoy the experience for what it is.

n  “Keep your dreams, you never know when you might need them.”n

There's something whimsical that comes with well-executing a book about books and the writing style brought to life the 1945 Barcelona. As usual, I barely knew anything going into this book aside from the fact that it's so well loved and I can see why. I was not aware that this involved a mystery but it drove the plot forward without feeling like you were only holding on for the plot twist. At the same time, the looming mystery was so investing to watch unfold, especially with the characters... I fell in love with them ohmy

A fun read, intriguing, fast-paced, with interesting and engaging characters.

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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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