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U Section of the San Bernardino SUN February 11, 2007 
The Shadow of the Wind By Carlos Ruiz Zafon Translated by Lucia Graves Penguin books, translation c2004 "The Shadow of the Wind" by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon is more than a book lover's book. It is for those bewitched by the alchemy of the written word and for those who think of books as a source of life. "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time" - the book's opening sentence plunges its hooks deep inside our minds destroying all illusions that somehow it is possible to put it down and go back to our daily lives. Barcelona 1945. The ominous shadow of Franco's dictatorship stretches across war-torn Spain. This is when the story of ten-year old Daniel Sempere, son of the widowed owner of a used books bookstore, begins. "According to tradition," Daniel's father tells him, "the first time someone visits this place (the Cemetery of Forgotten Books), he must choose a book and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive." Daniel chooses "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax. The very first sentences of the story of a man searching for his biological father and lost love, enthrall Daniel in the same way the first sentence of this very book ensnared me. Intoxicated by the words and the story, Daniel begins a quest to find the rest of the works by Carax as well as to find out more about the author. A seemingly impenetrable mystery surrounds the book and its author which fuels even more Daniel's determination to continue his quest. His father takes him to see Don Barcelo, another bookshop owner and lover of books. They meet at café Els Quatre Gats "where Barcelo and his bibliophile knights gathered to discuss the finer points of decadent poets, dead languages and neglected, moth-ridden masterpieces." You see, I am totally and completely enslaved by the language of "The Shadow of the Wind" about which I am writing here. Every word is a great quote. Don Barcelo desperately wants the book because it is so rare, Daniel's copy may be the only one in the world. He offers Daniel an enormous sum of money but Daniel refuses to part with the book. Barcelo and his niece, a stunning blind beauty, tell Daniel the little they know about Julian Carax. And thus the sleuthing begins. Years pass. Daniel's life unfolds while he follows clues that bring him closer to unraveling the mystery of Julian Carax and his books. His life parallels closely that of Carax. "The Shadow of the Wind" is a book within a book within a book, each page turned revealing underneath it the page of yet another book. Daniel himself compares the "The Shadow of the Wind" he picked out of the millions of books from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books to a Russian Matryoshka nesting doll which when opened reveals within another smaller doll and then another and another. So with this book - layer upon layer of stories. The same thread portraying the continuity of life runs through all of them. That and one other thing - a villainous character who tries to destroy Carax and even Daniel and whose presence throughout the entire book symbolizes the forces of evil. However in the end good triumphs over evil. On the verge of adulthood, Daniel falls in love with an enigmatic girl, the sister of his best friend. But Daniel and his beloved fall victims to the destructive old-world moral codes of courtship and love. Daniel begins to piece together Julian's love story about which he writes in "The Shadow of the Wind." Although set in different time periods, the two stories entwine, weaving a tale of passion, lust, ill begotten wealth, wars and the eternal battle between good and evil. But while Julian's love is doomed, Daniel's has a happy ending. This is a magical book. It is to the credit of translator Lucia Graves that we are able to experience the sorcery of Zafon's writing. Zafon shows us it is possible to portray passion with sensuous language instead of the in-your-face language bordering on pornography that so many contemporary writers use today. "The Shadow of the Wind" is held together by a book and shows that humankind without books would be nothing. Lives without books are lives without a past, without a memory and without a legacy - lives in a vacuum. Humankind and life itself, survive only though books. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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