I have just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón's
The Shadow of the Wind. It is a very impressive novel, absorbing and thought provoking. Thank you for the recommendation.
The characters and settings are painted finely enough that they can readily be seen, and the sensations of touch and smell are activated by Zafón's clear descriptions of Barcelona, all of this rendered with economical and unerring brushstrokes. It is the most engaging novel I have read in a long time, since Umberto Eco's
The Name of the Rose.
But what kind of a novel is it? It is difficult to place this book firmly within a single genre. At first it seemed to me analogous of an onion, an organic whole which is composed of many layers revealed one by one, but I discarded this comparison as inadequate. More appropriate perhaps is the analogy of a length of luxurious but strange fabric, one with many threads per inch, it's silk skillfully interwoven with fine wool and broad patches of coarser stuff to give it the unmistakable reality of life. This book is about life and death. It is a history, a love story, a Gothic horror mystery composed of too much reality to be dismissed as mere romance. It is a coming-of-age story and a tale of damnation and redemption. After the three quarter mark I found myself reading it in shorter sections, unwilling to see the end, yet unable to escape the fascination of approaching nemesis. It is inexorable, compelling and rewarding.
Zafón's character Julian Carax says "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you." Perhaps that is part of the reason I found the novel especially engaging. I have read a few books about the Spanish civil war, tragedy disguised as history. The knowledge of that history made Zafón's story seem so real to me. The novel is set largely in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, an area with which I have a passing acquaintance, having once spent ten days exploring its calles and plazas - a wonderful city. I found myself walking at the side of Zafón's characters as they made their way through the city. I could see what they saw, hear what they heard and, ultimately, feel a part of what they felt.
I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read a future classic.
I am now 242 pages into Zafón's prequel, The Angel's Game.