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The Shadow of the Wind | 
 enlarge | Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Creator: Lucia Graves
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.60
You Save: $14.40 (96%)
New (70) Used (244) Collectible (5) from $0.60
Rating:  512 reviews
Sales Rank: 1108
Media: Paperback
Pages: 487
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0143034901
Dewey Decimal Number: 863.64
EAN: 9780143034902
ASIN: 0143034901
Publication Date: February 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Book creased. Book does not lay flat. Book out of square. Some corner and edge wear. (Books may or may not include additional materials such as CD's, cassettes, cards, dust jacket, etc. All our books are previously owned and may contain inscriptions, pen or pencil markings, underlineing or hightlighting. Please inquire prior to purchase for specific conditions.) All items ship out via USPS within 48 hours during normal business hours, excluding holidays. Please provide correct address for USPS delivery.
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Product Description
Barcelona, 1945 A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax s other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author s identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 507 more reviews...
 A Good Read That Could Have Been A Great Novel May 5, 2004
Jana L. Perskie (New York, NY USA)
281 out of 330 found this review helpful
Reading "The Shadow Of The Wind" was both a delight and a disappointment. This novel had the potential to be excellent literary fiction. At times Carlos Ruiz Zafon's writing reminded me of both Gabriel Garcia Marquez's and Jorge Luis Borges' work. My expectations rose dramatically as I began to hope for more than a good read. Instead of great literature, however, the novel became an overlong and predictable bestseller, with a most original premise, some brilliant passages and many flaws.
Sr. Ruiz Zafon's extraordinary idea of creating a Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinthian library where each book awaits someone to choose it and give it another chance to live by making it part of the new owner's life, gave me chills. There existed a possibility, as I read the first chapters, that I might be able to list this as one of my favorite works of fiction. Unfortunately, my disappointment when reaching the novel's conclusion overshadowed the book's many positive elements.
Daniel Sempere is a young boy who fears he has forgotten the image of his dead mother's face. His compassionate father, an antiquarian book dealer, introduces him to the book cemetery. Daniel and Sr. Sempere are both memorable and unusual characters, as are many of Ruiz Zafon's other figures. Fermin, a former Republican agent who becomes a second father to Daniel, and Julian Carax, the author of the book Daniel selects, are both extraordinary men. Daniel's choice of books ultimately determines the course of his life, as he tries to discover if the author is still alive and solve the multitude of mysteries surrounding him. The setting, post-WWII Barcelona, is fascinating and Zafon depicts a brooding city in mourning as a result of the atrocities of both civil and world wars. The rich plot and various subplots, filled with passion, obsession and revenge, have such potential but become terribly convoluted and lose coherence at times. There is much too much information given about some of the characters, their rationales, and oddly enough, about an ancient, haunted house. Much of the mysterious ambiance is lost as a result of all the unwieldy description. Here, the concept "less is more" would have strongly improved the narrative. The entire novel could have been cut by a third, perhaps, and made a better, tighter book without losing any of the story or character development. I am a big fan of long, juicy novels, but the length should have a purpose and enhance the tale. The author has focused more on the melodramatic rather than the literary elements. Some may not care, as this is an excellent read. I did care though, as I see so much more potential here and hope the author lives up to it next time.
I do recommend "The Shadow Of The Wind." Most will find it highly enjoyable, as did I. I just expected more.
JANA
 a waste of time: just say no! November 27, 2004
Jacek R. Ambroziak (Framingham, MA, USA)
98 out of 131 found this review helpful
Believe it or not but I am shooting for an objective review here :-)
But the subjective part first: I wasted money on this book because of the many
positive reviews it has earned, the cool cover, and the utterly misleading
comparisons to Borges, Eco, etc. Just because the book copies a labyrinthine
library concept from Borges doesn't make the book worthy of the least talented
disciple of Borges'. Early into the book I found myself struggling with the
author and losing the battle: he has been successfully undermining my best
intentions in finding another literary adventure in this volume. Each time I
succeeded in psyching myself up to some interesting Atmosphere, he would
strike back with some naive stereotypical character/scene and ruin my efforts
back to square one. It felt such a loss of time...
Now, at least a month later, after the dust settled, it STILL feels like a complete waste of time :-)
Or perhaps the feeling is even more pronounced: I find myself mercifully
unable to remember most of the "contents." For instance, even though the
action takes place in Barcelona, I cannot recall any "mental views" of the
city so poorly is it described; it feels like some totally 'generic' city. The
same is true about the characters, except for the stupidest ones (Fumero), who
continue to haunt me for their inhuman articiciality.
I have to trash this book, unable to give it to anyone in good faith; the
book's images of The Cemetary of Forgotten Books and of a character seeking
out and burning books are more than fitting for the "Shadow" itself; it might
have been Zafon's own subconsciousness oozing the unpleasant truth.
Now the promised objective part. If you look at the reviews you can't help
noticing many enthusiastic ones; statistically most people liked the book. Mr.
Zafon has been successful in effectively targeting his market segment. I
cannot therefore predict whether you will find the book worthless or a good
read; for all its content-free simplicity the book does get engaging and can
work as a commuter rail pastime (hence the 1 star)(Just joking :-) 1 star is
the lowest at Amazon; there is no zero! Which means that even with all minimal
ratings any book will average at least one out of five stars).
For a taste of Real Literature I recommend "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by
Haruki Murakami. Luckily, I discovered Marakami after the "Shadow"
sub-experience and quickly regained faith in Literature as a lasting, deep,
meaningful cultural experience.
Amen.
Very entertaining but comparing it to Marquez? September 15, 2004
Emilia Palaveeva (Seattle, WA United States)
77 out of 98 found this review helpful
OK--if I was evaluating a thriller or a mystery, I would definitely give this book 5 stars. but it seems taht the book has greater pretentions--or at least some of the readers think so. While very well written and involved, with fully developed characters, atmosphere and historical background The Shadow of the Wind cannpt be compared to "A Hundred Year of Solitude." The melodrama and the stereotypical characters as well as the somewhat flat historical context separate this very interesting novel from teh masterpiece.
If I have to compare it to another novel, the Shadow of the Wind reminded me of the Count of Monte Christo--with its coincidences, characters obsessed with revenge or treasure, villains and damsels devoted to unrequitted love.
Long-Winded and Lurid October 28, 2004
Rose
77 out of 99 found this review helpful
Sad to say I thought this book, which I'd very much looked forward to reading, was terrible: murky and shallow. The identity of the dark 'mystery man' with the leather face, around which much of the presumed suspense revolves (and which takes the writer 350-odd gruelling pages to divulge), was only too obvious from the word 'go'. (One of the main reasons I kept reading was that I assumed my initial guess was too simple and that I must therefore be wrong. So I was left feeling cheated and annoyed.) The writing is indeed (as one critic described it) 'florid'. Though at time self-consciously clever, it is melodramatic (even gruesome in places), contrived, and devoid of joy, enshrouding the reader in an oppressive atmosphere. When I finished the book I felt depleted and only too relieved to emerge at last into the light of day.
A song to stupidity October 31, 2004
Tatiana (Altenberg)
72 out of 93 found this review helpful
I find this book stupid, time wasting, overextended, sweetmeated, with flat characters, three dimensional in its historic perspective, predictable, disturbing, and most of all, unsubtantially long...
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