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The Shadow of The Wind

Daniel chooses a novel called "The Shadow of the Wind" in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This choice shapes his life as he becomes obsessed with learning more about the obscure author, Julian Carax, who is believed to have died in the Spanish Civil War. As an adult, Daniel discovers that someone has been systematically tracking down and burning all copies of Carax's books. He begins investigating Carax's life and works to uncover the mysteries surrounding the author and the arsonist. Through a series of encounters, Daniel pieces together different perspectives on Carax and his tragic story, as well as the identity and motives of the man burning his books.

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Lynne Wornall
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2K views

The Shadow of The Wind

Daniel chooses a novel called "The Shadow of the Wind" in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This choice shapes his life as he becomes obsessed with learning more about the obscure author, Julian Carax, who is believed to have died in the Spanish Civil War. As an adult, Daniel discovers that someone has been systematically tracking down and burning all copies of Carax's books. He begins investigating Carax's life and works to uncover the mysteries surrounding the author and the arsonist. Through a series of encounters, Daniel pieces together different perspectives on Carax and his tragic story, as well as the identity and motives of the man burning his books.

Uploaded by

Lynne Wornall
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In the Cemetery of Forgotten Books

By Richard Eder THE SHADOW OF THE WIND By Carlos Ruiz Zafn.

Daniel, a 10-year-old boy dangerously grieving for his mother's death some years before -- ''I can't remember Mommy's face'' -- is taken by his solicitous bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. In this Borgesian labyrinth each book awaits someone to choose it, make it part of his or her life, and thereby renew its own lost life. Mostly for its handsome binding, little Daniel picks out a novel eponymously titled ''The Shadow of the Wind,'' by an obscure Spanish writer, Julin Carax. The choice will melodramatically shape the child's life, launching him as a young man, five years later, upon the garish, gothic quest that is the elaborate centerpiece of Ruiz Zafn's novel. At the same time, among other dramatic and interlocking quests that go back to the 1920's, it will shape an odd redemption for Carax's own dark tragedy. The main story is too zestfully convoluted to set out in any detail and allow space for the lush side stories that weave through it. Briefly: Once grown, Daniel is drawn into pursuing the mystery of Carax, supposedly killed in Barcelona at the start of the civil war. His search begins when he learns of the strange disappearance of all of Carax's novels, except for his own copy and several others in the Cemetery. For years, a man who gives himself the name of a Carax character has bought up and burned them in a series of small fires, and finally in a conflagration that destroys the publisher's entire warehoused stock. Daniel advances his investigation through a chain of encounters with figures connected to Carax. Each gives a different, flawed spin to the eventually converging mysteries of the writer and the arsonist.

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