Rating: 5 out of 5 StarsIt took me three attempts before I really made the decision to read this book. I would start it and then set it down and wander away, forgetting it existed for a couple months. I don’t know why it took me so long to actually get into the story because this book is amazing. This book is so good I am afraid to review it because I know I cannot do it justice. I just don’t have the words in me.
The story is set in post war Barcelona during the mid 1940's - 50's and begins with a young boy finding a mysterious book titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Young Daniel soon learns that someone has been systematically destroying all of Carax’s work and that that person will stop at nothing to get his copy of the book.
What starts as a simple enough mystery soon turns into an epic tale of love, betrayal, long smoldering hate and terrible secrets. The novel is laid out beautifully, each character offering up a different piece of the story. Barcelona is brought to life, in all its murky, gothic glory setting the scene perfectly for this stunning novel.
This is one of those books you can live in. You will sit up reading it well into the night and you will spend your days itching to get back to it. And while the end of the book does not have any completely unexpected twists, no shocking conclusions I still will not say much more about the plot because I wouldn't want to spoil anything about this book. This isn't a book I raced to finish as I was so fully engrossed in lives of Daniel and the other characters.
This is a book that you will remember fondly after reading, that you will go back to again and again to reread your favorite passages. The Shadow of the Wind will go on that special bookshelf I have dedicated to the stories that utterly consumed me as I read them.
