The Shadow of the Wind

I picked up this novel, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, with great anticipation. It tells the story of Daniel Sempere, a young boy who can no longer remember the face of his dead mother, and who lives with his father, the proprietor of an antiquarian book store in Barcelona. One day the two visit the cemetery of forgotten books, where Daniel discovers a world of orphaned books. His ultimate choice, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax, changes his life forever.

Daniel embarks on a quest to discover who Carax was, and the story of his tragic life. Along the way he unravels a story of corruption, murder, passion, obsession, and mysterious identity, in the years preceding and immediately following the Spanish Civil War and World War II. This setting provides a rich backdrop which Zafón uses very effectively, creating a malevolent atmosphere that seethes with intrigue, brutality and betrayal. As Daniel peels back the layers of mystery, he finds his own life mirroring that of Julián's, and he finds himself trapped in a web of intrigue and revenge.


Zafón is clearly a very talented writer, who rightly has been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Luis Borges, but alas in this case he comes up short. The writing displays flashes of brilliance, but the plot exposition is meandering and overly long, with a significant portion of the story being clumsily depicted in the form of narrative letters. His development of the characters is, in the main, masterfully done, with many being memorable and expertly drawn, although others are less well treated. Daniel's adopted uncle, Fermin, for example, is a fascinating individual, while Daniel's father is rather one-dimensional. 


Another disappointment for me was the use of language. At times, particularly in the first third or so of the book, I found the idioms strangely constructed in places - whether this true of the original Spanish, or Lucia Graves' translation, I can't say. It was clumsy enough to be distracting, and at times I felt as if the English was written by a non-native speaker.


On the whole, the story is fascinating and pleasurable. I can recommend "The Shadow of the Wind" as a good read, one that I enjoyed myself, but it is also one that is vaguely disappointing, one that made me feel as if the novel that this could have been is merely the shadow of the wind.