The Shadow of the Wind

By: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Barry Award

Book Sense Book of the Year

Borders Original Voices Award

Gumshoe Award

Horror Guild Award

Joseph-Beth and Davis-Kidd Booksellers Fiction Award

NYPL Books to Remember

Barcelona, 1945: Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his 11th birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.

Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it, his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness, and doomed love.

An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

Translated by Lucia Graves.

©2001 Carlos Ruiz Zafon; 2004 Lucia Graves (P)2004 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really, you should.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges for a sprawling magic show.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[T]here is no question that [The Shadow of the Wind] is wondrous. . . [M]asterful, meticulous plotting and extraordinary control over language. . . . The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.”—Entertainment Weekly

Best Ever!

This is the best audio book I have ever listened to! The performance was remarkable. He made the characters come to life and made me care about them. The story was complex and combined mystery, romance and suspense. The prose was lyrical. Have already downloaded next book in the series

Mystery about a mysterious author

A young boy is given the opportunity to care for a book from the "cemetery of forgotten books" and the plot revolves around his quest to find out all he can about the mysterious author. Some of the connections among the people he encounters can seem a bit far-fetched, but there are several interesting twists to the plot. There are many wonderful characters in the book. I thought the book's setting in post WWII Spain under the rule of Franco would be a more prominent in the storyline,

Fabulous

I'd love this book, I'm going to start it over immediately, This is One I'll go back to every Year and listen to it again

Terrible piano music

The story read like an Agatha Christie novel, revealing mystery through characters just handing over details rather than through the unfolding of the plot.

I enjoyed the narrator’s performance, but the whole store was tainted by the distracting piano music. Through I learned that the piano music was composed by Zafon himself, it was so loud and so long throughout the novel , I found I missed the beginning or end of every chapter with which it was included. It could have certainly done without that component, even though I appreciate that it tied to the connection of Julian being a pianist.

Great book!

Amazing book to listen to!!! Great story, well done on audio. Would recommend highly! Awesome

Entertaining

Story is great and narration is spot on. The only aspect I didn’t like was the music in the background.

Interesting and Mysterious

I liked the story and it was well narrated. I gave it 4 stars because I had trouble keeping track of all the names. I listen to audible while driving or walking. To keep track of characters, I would have to write down names. The characters were well thought out and descriptions were detailed. I felt I could visualize each person and place even if the story got a little “soapy” at times.

Transporting to another place

The story pulled me in and would not let me go!!!
I highly recommend it

Like Escher in Audio

The author takes you through a mystery in a world that bends in on itself; where all roads out take you back in. where things you should have expected are unexpected. Wonderful use of language. At times, I felt that the narrator lied to me a bit... but I forgive him.

Katherine of Maryland is certainly correct that the music in the audio version is extremely distracting. I often hear audiobooks that have music at the beginning and ending. Sometime you get a bit of music at the end of chapters. None of this works well. But, in this case, the music seems to pop up all the time. It is loud and it is distracting. I would urge that this audio be re-issued with the music track removed.

Wonderful Story

This book is well-written, thoughtful, and has a great storyline with lots of plot twists answer surprises. The characters are well-developed and the descriptions are outstanding. I could not have enjoyed it more!