The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I know readers, I know, I said I was going to be posting my recommendation blog up next plus a couple other projects, but I got distracted. Not by school or anything silly like that, but by a book, but not just any book, one of the best books I have yet to encounter called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. What's even more surprising about this is the fact that this book isn't a science fiction or a fantasy, heck it isn't even a mystery/thriller, this is a Fiction! Not only that, but it's set in the 1940's! How can this be you ask? Well, even though I have my complaints about the fiction/literature as a whole, when a good--no scratch that--great novel comes out, it is my duty to acknowledge it. Indeed, even great may not do this book justice. No, The Shadow of the Wind is easily one of my top ten favorite books ever.

As usual, I was somewhat skeptical of this book when I heard of it, but after hearing recommendations not only from customers I trust, but from one of my coworkers that is as much of a bookworm as me, I relented and decided to but it. I've had The Shadow of the Wind on my 'to read' shelf since mid-December, but it wasn't until recently that I finally picked it up. Let me tell you, dear reader, that as much as I love my sci-fi/fantasy, this book blew me away! I don't know what it is with Spanish and Portuguese authors*, but they just have this poetic way with words that, not only makes reading their books a delight, but adds so much to the plot that it almost makes it hard to read poorly written American prose! Alas, it is actually rather difficult to even quantify this book as just "fiction" because it's so much more! Mystery, romance, tragedy, and suspense! All of them wrapped up into an amazingly poetic tale! The setting, as I mentioned earlier, is the 1940's Barcelona, Spain which adds a whole other dimension to this already epic novel! While reading The Shadow of the Wind, the reader is also taking a tour of historical Spain just after the Spanish Civil War, a time of bloody fighting and terror! The great thing, though, is that the reader need not be a Spanish historian to understand and enjoy the story--this should be obvious seeing as I am about as far from being considered a Spanish historian as I am from being a Olympic figure skater. Indeed, far from turning the average reader off from the historical significance, I believe that the book will intrigue and fascinate everyone to the point of doing a bit of research! I can honestly say that, though I've always wanted to go to Spain, it hasn't been very high up on my list until now. I would give anything right now to hit the streets of Barcelona with a copy of this book! Speaking of which, at the very end of the novel the author includes a walking tour of Barcelona so you can see all the sites described in the book. Though some are, of course, fabricated, I think it would be so cool to wander the streets and see these places that inspired the book! Indeed this type of thing has only recently become stupendously popular with Dan Brown's novels--you can take countless paid tours of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons in Italy and rumor has it that there are The Lost Symbol Tours springing up in D.C. as well.

Alas, the very nature of The Shadow of the Wind makes it extremely difficult to talk much of the plot without giving away spoilers, but suffice to say there are things in this book that surprised even me! I hate to be cryptic, but I refuse to give away anything at all about this book! In any case, this is one of those books that absolutely everyone can and will enjoy from bookworms to the occasional reader, it has something for everyone! Actually I wish I was better read in some of the classic literature that is referenced in The Shadow of the Wind and actually it has inspired me to read my least favorite type of writing, poetry. Hell, this book is almost enough to make me want to learn to, at least, read Spanish so that I could fully absorb it the way it was written! Speaking of which, I have to give major props to the translator Lucia Graves whom without which The Shadow of the Wind would have been a lesser novel. She straddles that insane line of being able to both translate accurately and yet still keep the poetic and well written nature of the book intact! So my friends, please, for me, go to your local bookstore or library and pick up this novel, I promise that you will not be disappointed! And no worries, I'm still working on my other posts which should be out this month, hopefully!

*If you haven't read anything by one of these authors here's three excellent books to try out: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Blindness by José Saramago, and, of course, the one I've raved about in this post, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.