The Cemetery of Forgotten Books 01 - The Shadow Of The Wind, page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
DAYS OF ASHES - 1945-1949
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
AN EMPTY PLATE - 1950
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
TRUE TO CHARACTER - 1951-1953
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
CITY OF SHADOWS - 1954
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
NURIA MONFORT: REMEMBRANCE OF THE LOST 1933-1955
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
THE SHADOW OF THE WIND 1955
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
POSTMORTEM 27 November 1955
THE WATERS OF MARCH 1956
DRAMATIS PERSONAE 1966
The Shadow of the Wind
The Shadow of the Wind Walk
More from W&N Fiction
Copyright Page
‘If you thought the gothic novel died with the nineteenth century, this will change your mind … in Zafón’s hands, every scene seems to come from an early Orson Welles movie … One gorgeous read’
Stephen King
‘This gothic, historical, and at times quasi-supernatural romantic thriller needs to be taken away on holiday … Entertaining and clever, it is moving too, and also has moments of very pleasing silliness. I remember loving it so much, that I was actually frightened that it would let me down at the end – it didn’t’
Sadie Jones, Independent on Sunday
‘Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind, set in Barcelona and haunted by memories of civil war, is part gothic mystery, part ribald comedy, part political thriller, part Borgesian parable, and all marvellous’
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times
‘It sucked me in and took my soul … a modern classic’
Richard Madeley, Woman’s Own
‘I couldn’t put it down but didn’t want to rush it as every sentence is beautifully crafted and every character unique’
Santa Montefiore, Evening Standard
‘A book lover’s dream!’
Jo Dodd, The Times
‘If you want to be totally gripped, I would recommend The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, a superior thriller set in Franco’s Spain. Written with exuberance and humour, it’s strong on atmosphere and consistently suspenseful’
Miriam Goss, Sunday Telegraph (Summer Reading)
‘A complex and absorbing novel … it is a tribute to Ruiz Zafón’s skills as a Hollywood scriptwriter that he can create stunning set-pieces and bring to life a host of eccentric figures’
Spectator
‘The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller’s art. I couldn’t put it down. Enchanting, hilarious and heartbreaking, this book will change your life. An instant classic’
Daily Telegraph
‘A sensation across Europe … a page-turning mystery … a coming-of-age tale … And it’s a hymn of praise to all the joys of reading, stylishly caught in Lucia Graves’s entrancing translation’
Boyd Tonkin, Independent
‘Set in post-civil war Barcelona, this spine-chilling, gripping, multi-layered novel of secrets, love and loss, packed with unforgettable characters … is simply brilliant’
Choice
‘A magical tale of romance’
Cecelia Ahern, Sunday Express
‘ Swiftly paced and entertaining’
TLS
‘Intertwining playful detective caper, compelling political thriller and sweeping historical romance, the narrative coils back beyond the savagery of the civil war to the world of the tainted Spanish aristocracy, before slowly unravelling the dark secrets born of Franco’s tyranny. Zafón’s novel [will] leave the reader with a palpable sense of enchantment’
Sunday Times
‘A nice, big, fat, juicy novel’
Penny Smith, Sunday Express
‘This bewitching novel has all the hallmarks of a classic Holy Grail story complete with mystery, mayhem, romance and labyrinthine plotting. What elevates it above all others in the genre is its emotional energy, making it a richly rewarding read’
Daily Mail
‘The best book I’ve ever read’
Amanda Lamb, Woman & Home
‘What makes this novel so irresistibly readable is the emotional energy generated by the ups and downs of a big and varied cast of memorable characters. His conviction of the importance of literature in real life comes shining through. Walk down any street in Zafón’s Barcelona and you’ll glimpse the shades of the past and the secrets of the present, inscribed alike in the city’s material fabric and the lives of its citizens. Exuberant, larger than life in their tragedies as in their joys and desires, they are irrepressible: no dictatorship can keep them down’
Michael Kerrigan, Guardian
‘Zafón’s book is tremendously enjoyable … his story is impressively well-rounded. Humour, horror, politics and romance are skilfully deployed and … the overall effect is hugely satisfying. Zafón, a former screenwriter, is particularly good at contrast and pacing: the book’s 400 pages whip past with incredible speed’
Sunday Telegraph
‘One of those rare novels that combine brilliant plotting with sublime writing … word of mouth alone is sure to make it a bestseller’
James Daunt, Sunday Times
‘Gripping and instantly atmospheric, this literary mystery opens in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a maze-like library of obscure tomes hidden away in Barcelona’s Old City, where the hero, Daniel, is taken as a boy … But he little realises the evil which it will unleash and the devastating impact it will have on his life’
You magazine, Mail on Sunday
‘A potent mix: a coming-of-age story set in Barcelona’s post-war years, an edge of fantasy, a tragic love story, and a labyrinth of mystery’
Benedicte Page, Bookseller
‘Zafón makes sure there’s a robust serving of amor, and enough magic, murder and madness to keep even the most reluctant reader engrossed. Diabolically good’
Elle
‘Everything about The Shadow of the Wind is smooth. The language purrs along, while the plot twists and unravels with a languid grace … Zafón’s novel is atmospheric, beguiling and thoroughly read able’
Observer
‘Riveting’
Magnus Magnusson, Scotsman
‘A startling novel about obsession and the dangerous path it can take you on’
Book of the Week, Woman’s Weekly
‘Set in the author’s native Barcelona in the years after the Spanish Civil War, this gripping novel has the feel of a gothic ghost story, complete with crumbling, ivy-covered mansions, gargoyles and dank prison cells … this is just the sort of literary mystery that would have found favour with Wilkie Collins’
Daily Mail
‘Wondrous … ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero’
Entertainment Weekly
‘[A] fantastical twisting gothic thriller’
Fanny Blake, Woman & Home
‘Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s wonderfully chock-a-block novel The Shadow of the Wind starts with the search for a mysterious author in Barcelona in the aftermath of the Civil War and then packs in as many plots and characters as it does genres – Gothic melodrama, coming-of-age story, historical thriller and more. It is a deeply satisfying, rich, full read’
Michael Prodger, Sunday Telegraph
‘Gabriel García Márquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges … Ruiz Zafón gives us a panoply of alluring and savage personages and stories. His novel eddies in currents of passion, revenge and mysteries whose layers peel away onion-like yet persist in growing back … we are taken on a wild ride that executes its hairpin bends with breathtaking lurches’
New York Times
‘Good old-fashioned narrative is back in fashion … his tale [has] a dramatic tension that so many contemporary novels today seem to lack. This is highly sophisticated, fun reading that keeps you
Scotsman
‘This book is a rare commodity: a gripping tale with literary distinction’
Ronald Harwood, winner of the 2003 Academy Award for the screenplay of The Pianist, Sunday Telegraph
‘Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind lives up to the reviewers’ superlatives. It is elegantly plotted and beautifully written’
Carl MacDougall, author of The Devil and the Giro, Herald
‘This epic novel spent two years on the Spanish bestseller list. It’s easy to see why … Zafón is planning to write another three books around the same theme, and if they keep the pulse pumping and the pages turning as reliably as this fantastic piece of fiction, he will have a publishing phenomenon on his hands’
Sunday Herald
‘The translation by Lucia Graves is excellent, mixing formality with poetry … The twists of the story which fold in on itself again and again like complicated origami, eventually reveal a simple shape. Love and deception are at the heart of the literary mystery – aren’t they always?’
Scotland on Sunday
‘The book is written by someone witty and knowing enough to spoof himself while still being able to raise the hairs on the back of your neck … Barcelona becomes a place of doors opening into dark interiors of the mind’
Economist
‘The Shadow of the Wind will keep you up for nights – and it’ll be time well spent. Absolutely marvellous’
Kirkus *starred review*
‘This is such a racy, enthralling tale that it is easy to see why it spent two years on the bestseller list when it was first published in Spanish and Catalan … clever and expertly told … an extremely good read’
Herald
‘A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love’
Woman’s Own
‘An astounding critical success. There’s an intricate plot, a gothic atmosphere and an elusive quest, as well as murders, intrigue and star-crossed lovers’
Guardian
‘Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind thrills from start to finish’
Jamie Byng, Seven Days
‘This book had me in its grip. It ought to be in yours’
Christopher Bray, The Word
‘Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really, you should’
Michael Dirda, Washington Post
‘Combining all the best elements of crime fiction with an investigation of the power of literature to shape our lives and imaginations, it is one of the most original and compelling stories of the past decade’
Nick Rennison, Waterstones Quarterly
‘I’d happily read it again and again. Straight after reading it I went to Barcelona, so I could see where the Cemetery of Lost Books was’
Ben di Lisi, Eve
‘Set in post-war Barcelona, Zafón’s tightly plotted thriller is sharp, sexy, gothic (perhaps even a little ghoulish), powerfully atmos pheric, often funny and utterly unputdownable. The Shadow of the Wind is more than a book about a book – it’s an inspired homage to the book, a celebration of writing, and an exhortation to read’
The Australian
‘One of the most engaging, funny, moving, lyrical books’
Irish Examiner
‘A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love’
Sunday Express
‘Page after page reveals marvellous evocations of Barcelona, its ancient, twisting alleyways and wide boulevards, gloomy, crumbling piles and the pompous palaces of industrial magnates. There is something wonderfully tangible about the way Ruiz Zafón manages to convey the city’s physical and even perhaps spiritual atmosphere’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘A wonderful portrait of Barcelona – not the sunny, culture-rich and fun-loving city-break destination that most visitors know – but a shadowy, at times dark and atmospheric picture of the city centre streets in the years following the Spanish Civil War’
Living Spain
‘A real page-turner of a mystery that will have you hooked from beginning to end’
Spanish Magazine
‘It’s big, chock-full of unusual characters, and strong in its sense of place. Part detective story, part boy’s adventure, part romance, fantasy, and gothic horror, the intricate plot is urged on by extravagant foreshadowing and nail-nibbling tension. This is rich, lavish storytelling’
Booklist
‘A rousing adventure that reads as if Jorge Borges were writing in the mode of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose’
Elle (USA)
‘What is outstanding is the metaphysical concept of books that assume a life of their own as the author plays with intertextual references … Even the plot and characters of Carax’s fictitious work are interwoven into this meticulously crafted mosaic’
Library Journal
Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona and is the author of six novels, including The Shadow of the Wind, the most successful novel in Spanish publishing history after Don Quixote. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages and received numerous international awards. His books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide and his latest novel, The Angel’s Game, was the fastest selling book of all time in Spain.
Visit his website at www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk
The Shadow Of The Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
For Joan Ramón Planas,
who deserves better
The Cemetery of Forgotten Books
I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time. It was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over Rambla de Santa Mónica in a wreath of liquid copper.
‘Daniel, you mustn’t tell anyone what you’re about to see today,’ my father warned. ‘Not even your friend Tomás. No one.’
‘Not even Mummy?’
My father sighed, hiding behind the sad smile that followed him like a shadow all through his life.
‘Of course you can tell her,’ he answered, heavy-hearted. ‘We keep no secrets from her. You can tell her everything.’
Shortly after the Civil War, an outbreak of cholera had taken my mother away. We buried her in Montjuïc on my fourth birthday. The only thing I can recall is that it rained all day and all night, and that when I asked my father whether heaven was crying, he couldn’t bring himself to reply. Six years later my mother’s absence remained in the air around us, a deafening silence that I had not yet learned to stifle with words. My father and I lived in a modest apartment on Calle Santa Ana, a stone’s throw from the church square. The apartment was directly above the bookshop, a legacy from my grandfather, that specialized in rare collectors’ editions and secondhand books - an enchanted bazaar, which my father hoped would one day be mine. 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. As a child I learned to fall asleep talking to my mother in the darkness of my bedroom, telling her about the day’s events, my adventures at school, and the things I had been taught. I couldn’t hear her voice or feel her touch, but her radiance and her warmth haunted every corner of our home, and I believed, with the innocence of those who can still count their age on their ten fingers, that if I closed my eyes and spoke to her, she would be able to hear me wherever she was. Sometimes my father would listen to me from the dining room, crying in silence.
On that June morning, I woke up screaming at first light. My heart was pounding in my chest as if my very soul was trying to escape. My father hurried into my room and held me in his arms, trying to calm me.
‘I can’t remember her face. I can’t remember Mummy’s face,’ I muttered, breathless.
My father held me tight.
‘Don’t worry, Daniel. I’ll remember for both of us.’
We looked at each other in the half-light, searching for words that didn’t exist. For the first time, I realized my father was growing old. He stood up and drew the curtains to let in the pale glint of dawn.
‘Come, Daniel, get dressed. I want to show you something, ’ he said.
