‘The Shadow of The Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This is a book I have frequently seen displayed in bookstores over the past twenty years with its enticing sepia / chocolate brown cover and back cover blurb that references a ‘cemetery of forgotten books’. I have picked it up and thought about getting a copy many times, but never did. Then earlier this year I was lent a copy by a colleague who has very good literary taste and I have now read it.

The novel is long, but very pacy with interesting characters. It is set before and immediately after the second world war in Barcelona, so the Spanish Civil War looms large. It is part a mystery story, part thriller, part romance and also a bildungsroman with a little dose of manageable magical realism. So it covers most literary bases.

There is a great deal about this novel that would normally repel rather than attract me. It is very much written from a man’s perspective, containing quite a lot of sex and rather more pretty sadistic violence. But I could cope with that because in compensation we have a splendid bookish setting and a lot of humour. It is also just a rattling good story with lots of twists and turns. Great stuff – and there are three prequels / sequels that follow on too.