The Shadow of the Wind

 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (trans. Lucia Graves), 506 pages.

Daniel Sempere's bookseller father takes him to a mysterious building called The Library of Lost Books, a safe haven for lost and forgotten books underneath Barcelona. Here Daniel is given guardianship of a novel called The Shadow of the Wind, but his search for the author spans decades and draws him into ever darker mysteries in a city recovering from civil war. 

This book was recommended to me more than a decade ago by one of my best friends, and I'm so glad I finally got around to it. Even better, I imagine I appreciated it more now than I would have as a teenager. This is a dark and moody mystery with a distinctly gothic tint. The novel takes its time and revels in its sense of atmosphere, and I found myself completely immersed in it, not dissimilarly from how Daniel felt about his precious book. It is easy to forget that this novel is historical fiction and not Ruiz Zafón writing from the 1940s. This historical Barcelona feels so comfortable and lived in that it's hard to believe that the author was born decades later. Although I'm very late to this party, I would definitely recommend this book to a whole wide range of readers.