¡¡Qué maravilla!!

Magical and perfect for this time of the year

"No se puede entender la vida hasta que no se entiende la muerte."

Ruiz Zafón jamás defrauda y está en mi lista de autores favoritos.

Con este libro corto el autor nos presenta un conjunto de temas, y es que si bien es cierto que contiene amor en una pequeña parte, sus elementos principales son el suspense y la intriga, que se mantienen fieles en las páginas desde principio a fin.
Los personajes constituyen el eje principal sobre el autor ha montado la trama, una trama llena de novedades y misterio a partes iguales; y resultaron verdaderamente entrañables, aunque si bien un poco complejas. Quizás la juzgue mal al haberla leído después de La sombra del viento.

Sin embargo, con Marina nos encontramos con una novela corta que mezcla de amor y ternura con toques de oscuridad, terror... con un final desgarrador y totalmente inesperado.

100% recomendado

Okay, where do I stand on this ? Wait, lemme get my breath back. Wow. What youthful emotions permeated in this book, raw. This was an excellent novel, clearly a beloved of the author's. It wasn't epic on Shadow of the Wind's scale, but still without much comparing them, it's a fine early work with enough unique wordlings in it to pack quite a few punches, whew.

I don't think this was a Gothic tale per se, but still couple of times during the night it definitely crept me out, had to finish it during the day, hehe. I feel the two connecting backstories were well told and on par with the central story. This book. Ahem. Um. Made me feel lonely, scared, isolated, sad and then made me fall in love with words again.

Ultimately it ended up making me feel hopeful toward all things, especially friendships and good people made special, again and again. If we have the willingness to try, that is.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon amazes me with his talents. I hate to admit that, so there it is. He is fantastic. One thing I have noticed; he loves women without betraying his gender or theirs. Bravo.

It's kinda book that makes one wants to be a writer. Sadly, I am one already. And that is saddening indeed, but for all the reasons that's got naught to do with Words.

In the late 1970s Barcelona was a mirage of avenues and winding alleys where one could easily travel thirty or forty years into the past by just stepping into the foyer of a grand old building or walking into a cafe. Time and memory, history and fiction merged in the enchanted city like watercolours in the rain. It was there, in the lingering echo of the streets that no longer exist, that cathedrals and age-old palaces created the tapestry into which this story would be woven.

Once more, Carlos Ruiz Zafon chooses as his setting his beloved city of Barcelona, letting his imagination weave secret, fantastic and scary histories behind the facades of the old buildings. The flowing, organic, twisted plot line mirrors maybe the style of the city's other poet, the one who wrote his verses in stone - Antonio Gaudi. Marina precedes the Library of Forgotten books series and marks the transition from his Young Adult early novels to his more ambitious Shadow of the Wind. There is a lot of similarity between the protagonists, Oscar Drai here and Daniel Sempere in the later novel. Both have a vivid imagination and both love to roam the city streets at all hours. Both fall for mysterious girls, both get entangled in old conflicts with a touch of the supernatural, both stories start in a cemetery of sorts.

The memories of hundreds of people lie here. Their lives, their feelings, their expectations, their absence, the dreams that never came true for them, the disappointments, the deceptions and the unrequited loves that poisoned their existence ... All that is here, trapped forever. Nothing in life can be understood until you understand death.

How's that for a first date? Boy meets beautiful girl, he invites her out and she takes him for a first date to an old, forgotten graveyard where they witness a masked lady, dressed all in black, lay a red rose on a grave marked only by the image of a black butterfly. There must be a story behind this mystery.

I'd say she's a keeper! Grey-eyed Marina lives with her father, German Blau, in a huge house set in an untended garden. Her mother died giving birth to Marina, and the rooms are filled with her beautiful portraits, the last paintings ever to be done by her bereaved husband. Oscar takes about a couple of seconds to fall utterly and irreversibly in love with her, but she keeps him at a distance. The investigation into the secret of the veiled woman, the grave, the rose and the black butterfly will help to bring boy and girl closer together.

The writing style took some getting used to, especially due to the heavy handed use of lurid adjectives and to the extraordinary circumstances the young couple has to face. After the forgotten graveyard, they investigate a 'macabre' greenhouse, a derelict apartment, an abandoned Opera House, a burned down luxury residence, the sewers under the city streets, a railway station ( I'd always thought that old railway stations were one of the few magical places left in the world, where ghosts of memories and farewells mingled with the start of hundreds of one-way journeys to faraway destinations. ). They almost get killed by a train inside a tunnel, by strange marionnetes half-human and half-machine, are hunted by evil smelling ghosts and reclusive taxi drivers.

The inside of the factory looked to me like the scene of a nightmare. Hundreds of feet, hands, arms, legs and glass eyes were scattered about the premises ... replacement parts for a broken and miserable humanity.

These are just a few examples of the scary, yet so entertaining, adventures Oscar and Marina have as they unravel the history of Mijail Kolvenik and Eva Irinova. I will not give more details of this subject, better to have some surprises left out of my review. I will only say that the novel reminded me strongly of the XIX century Romantic movement, with its preference for tragic star-crossed lovers and grand gestures made by passionate souls ready to fight against Death in order to remain by the side of their lovers. I'm thinking of Victor Hugo (Notre Dame de Paris), of Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera), of Bram Stoker or Eugene Sue - powerful melodrama with lots of corpses and morbid settings. From my recent reads the closer comparison I can make is with Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay, another Y.A. adventure about a couple of youths investigating the ghosts of the past.

That night Mijail said he believed each one of us is only granted brief moments of pure happiness. Sometimes only days or weeks. Other times years. It all depends on our luck. The remembrance of such moments stays with us for ever and becomes a land of memories to which we vainly attempt to return during the rest of our existence.

Parallel to the drama of Mijail and Irina, the boy and the girl are making their own history together, a more delicate and touching affair, with touches of humour in the beginning ( When her lips touched my ear I felt a tingling on the nape of my neck, like a centipede dancing the bossa nova. ) and a lot of sadness and pain later on ( Sometimes the things that are most real only happen in one's imagination, Oscar. We only remember what never really happened. ). History repeats itself, from Mijail and Irina, to the girls's parents German and Kirsten, to Oscar and Marina. The lovers are not destined for happy ever after. The moral of the story is to not be afraid of life, embrace it and cherish the moments together because they will be over much too soon. As an older German Blau remarks:

It's the fire of youth. Believe me, I envy you. Youth is like a fickle girlfriend. We can't understand or value her until she goes off with someone else, never to return ...

Me too, at the end of the journey, feel it is better to remember Marina and Daniel for the vivacity and courage and curiosity about their surroundings that defined them rather than for  the bittersweet pain of separation

Conclusion : Marina can be a good choice as an introduction to Carlos Ruiz Zafon, an easier read but similar in style and content with the Shadow of the Wind, which remains my favorite.

n  ذكرتني هذه القصة بتلك العرائس الروسية المفرغة والتي تحوي علي عدد كبير من النماذج المصغرة منها بداخلها، خطوة بخطوة تكتشف أن الحكاية انقسمت إلي آلاف القصص وكأنها دخلت لبيت المرايا وتفتت في انعكاسات لا نهائيةn

مرة أخري بعد رباعية ظل الريح هذه كانت الحالة بتلك القصة...حكاية منقسمة لأكثر من حكاية...أوسكار "بطل قصتنا" تعرف علي ماريا..ومن خلال مغامرة تلصص بسيطة دخلا عالم من القصص العجيبة التراجيديا عن الطبيعة القاسية للحياة والموت

قصة عن الفقدان مغلفة بقصص قوطية مرعبة ورومانسية وعجائبية... ربما كانت فعلا أفضل نهاية لقراءات ذلك العام الصعب الذي ربما عاني اغلب من سكان العالم منا فقدان ما... اشهرهم فقدان مؤلف هذا الكتاب والذي كان عمله الأول...كارلوس زافون



كانت هذه هي اخر قراءة في تحدي 2020
كل عام وانتم بألف خير

محمد العربي
من 21 ديسبمبر 2020
الي 25 ديسمبر 2020

For a book that has been described as the best Zafon since The Shadow of the Wind, there are simply no words to describe what a consummate disappointment the experience of reading Marina was. It was a book with so much potential that simply went nowhere. It was full of two-dimensional characters and was utterly derivative of much greater works. It was wholly unoriginal and, therefore, such a disappointment to read.

I am always wary with translated books, as they seem to lose a lot in the act of translation. I feel that this might be the case with Zafon's Marina as most Spanish reviews seem to give it glowing praise. Perhaps there is something about the language and descriptions in the Spanish language that provides this novel with a depth which it lacks in English. Or maybe that Zafon's labour of love was translated by someone else, rather than the author himself, made it lose a little of its impact.

The pacing of Marina is way off. It starts with the protagonist, Oscar, being mysteriously discovered alone in a train station by a policeman, unwilling to talk about the recent ordeal which had him missing without a trace for a week. We would hope that this mystery would have a thrilling resolution; however, the reason for the week's disappearance is truly mundane as we find out toward the end of the novel. The mystery, which is unrelated to Oscar's disappearance, is also never solved organically. Instead, we follow Oscar and the titular Marina from secondary character to secondary character, giving us all the relevant information we need to know in long, convenient soliloquies with no apparent reason for doing so.

There is no sense of character for anyone in the novel. We know nothing about Oscar or Marina other than they exist in this one moment. The novel seems to be narrated by an adult Oscar, but we don't even know what he went on to become or how this tale affected his life to the point where he felt it had to be told. The motivations for secondary characters to give these two teenagers all the information they ask for are non-existent. In some cases, I would go so far as to say it would be a breach of confidentiality to have given them any of the information. A policeman decides to provide a random 15-year-old with details of an ongoing corporate investigation, and a doctor decides to share the patient information of not only a patient, but his friend? And why? Because they asked nicely? On top of that, Zafon's female characters are appallingly written; he is very old fashioned in his descriptions of women who always remain white, virginal, and fragile. The pedestal grates after a while.

When I say this book is derivative, it is because it smacks of unoriginality. The two most glaring comparisons can come from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (to the point where there is a doctor Shelley whose daughter is conveniently named Maria) with motif's of the creation of life, what playing god can mean for yourself and those around you, and the monstrosities created when you play god. The second most notable parallel is between Marina and Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. We have the setting of an opulent theatre, the theme of physical deformity, even some vague allusions to 'carnival freaks', which is never really properly developed other than providing a convenient McGuffin through the discovery of an old photo album. The pictures of physical deformities are described by Marina and Oscar, quite distastefully, as 'horrific' (which also never goes anywhere in the plot).

This book had potential, but to say that Marina did not reach that potential is an understatement. What an absolute disappointment.

Otro buen libro de Zafón, que se lee en una sentada de lo adictivo que es. Personajes correctamente desarrollados y un inicio arrollador que, para mi lamento, se fue desinflando a medida que la trama avanzaba, hasta llegar a un punto un tanto delirante.

دیدید وقتی که یه منظره‌ی فوق‌العاده می‌بینید، (یا هرچیز بی‌نظیر دیگه‌ای) واقعا زبونتون بند میاد؟ من الان همون حس رو دارم. فکرهام بند اومدن. نمی‌دونم از زیبایی چیزی که خوندم لبخند بزنم یا با یادآوریش اشک بریزم یا همین‌جوری شوکه بمونم. توی کتاب‌فروشی، اول بنفش خیلی جذابش چشمم رو گرفت و بعد اسمِ نویسنده‌ی نازنینش. مارینا دوباره بهم یادآوری کرد که چقدر عاشق قلم کارلوس روئیت ثافون‌ام.

اسکار پسریه که‌ توی یه دبیرستان شبانه‌روزی درس می‌خونه. اسکار شب‌هارو توی کوچه پس کوچه‌های بارسلون پرسه می‌زنه. توی یکی از پرسه‌زدن‌هاش، به یه عمارت مرموز می‌رسه. خیلی اتفاقی وارد اونجا می‌شه و صدای شگفت‌انگیز موسیقی رو که از عمارت میاد می‌شنوه. طولی نمی‌کشه که خیلی اتفاقی، با اهالی اونجا آشنا می‌شه...

دارک‌ آکادمیای خالص!
چه داستانی زیباتر از این؟ یکی از نکته‌‌های خیلی خاص درمورد قلم نویسنده اینه که تک‌بعدی نیست و یک ژانر رو دنبال نمی‌کنه. هم شمارو می‌ترسونه، هم باعث می‌شه لبخند بزنید و هم با پایان لعنتیش اشکتون رو درمیاره. نمی‌دونم از چی باید بگم. از شخصیت‌های دوست‌داشتنی‌ش؟ از داستان دارکش؟ از دوستیِ زیبای بین شخصیت‌ها؟
برید بخونیدش. فقط همین. فقط بخونیدش.

پ.ن: اسکار تا یه حدی من رو یادِ دانیلِ سایه‌ی باد می‌نداخت.
پ.ن۲: شخصیتِ مارینا تا ابد توی ذهن من می‌مونه‌. این کتاب هم همین‌طور.
پ.ن۳: یک بارِ دیگه پروانه‌ها ثابت کردن که چقدر می‌تونن کریپی باشن.
پ.ن۴: توی گفتارِ آخر، نویسنده گفته بود که می‌خواسته کتابی بنویسه که آرزو داشته توی نوجوونی یا جوونیش بخونه و تا بیست یا سی سال بعد، باز هم اون کتاب به نظرش جذاب و شگفت‌انگیز بیاد. موفق شده، کارلوس روئیت ثافون‌ چیزی که خواسته رو نوشته.

پ.ن۵: (این یکی اسپویل داره. ‼️)

وقتی به آخر کتاب رسیده بودم اشک چشمام رو می‌سوزوند. به این فکر می‌کردم چرا؟ چرا باید همچین چیزی به سر مارینا بیاد؟ و به سر اسکار و خرمان. چرا باید این سرنوشت باشه. چرا نباید صدای گرامافون تا ابد توی عمارت بپیچه؟ چرا نمی‌شه که اسکار و مارینا مثل قصه‌های پری��ن تا آخر عمرشون خوشحال و کنارِ هم زندگی کنن؟

Puntaución: 4,5

Lo he escuchado en audiolibro y ha sido mi primera vez con el autor, y desde luego que no será la última. Me he sentido parte de todo, parte de esta Barcelona antigua, sus calles, sus gentes, sus mansiones abandonadas, el cementerio... Y me he sentido parte de la historia de Marina, y de un protagonista que su curiosidad lo lleva a investigar secretos largamente escondidos. Estos secretos han sido escalofriantes en algunos aspectos y eso me ha encantado, porque tiene un toque de thriller y un toque de terror, es fascinante la imaginación del autor. He llorado con el final y lo he sentido muy hondo, me ha tocado el corazón ya que los personajes los he sentido muy cercanos, sin duda es una historia inolvidable.

Nunca me cansaré de esta historia

don’t talk to me