Carlos Ruiz Zafón의 'The shadow of the wind (La sombra del viento)'

Two happy days reading this fascinating novel. A boy visits the 'cemetery of forgotten books' and adopts a book 'The shadow of the wind'. Having read it engrossed, Daniel the boy attempts to look for other books of that same author Julián Carax, only to find that for decades a 'devil' has been seeking out and burning his books. He goes on a search to find out what happened to the author. In time, the boy himself is threatened by this char-faced phantom to hand the book out.

 

The plot is intricate and compelling throughout, sub-plots containing sub-plots in themselves. The story line is tightly-woven, every new chapter bringing forth a new and unexpected twist to the story. Captivating from start to finish, it was extremely difficult to put it down.

 

To see how the complex and convoluted 3D puzzle blocks which are decorated with realistic and psychologically complex characters, beautiful language, romance, passion, and mystery, are neatly arranged, again with elaborate twists and turns, none of which is too superficial or too overdone, to be converged to a vivid shape, it was a real reading pleasure itself.

 

There is, however, a fatal flaw to be pointed at Was the masterminded Zafón also perhaps driven to the limit of his concentration capability or was he simply exhausted to go further? It was really an overflow to repeat the whole story again in a 100 page letter from a lady to Daniel.