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. 

love in lower-case / francesc miralles, trans. by Julie Wark, 224 pp.

A light love story, set in Barcelona and featuring a self-isolated language professor, a cat, a conspiracy theorist, and others.  Sweet, with loads of literary and classical music references.  The Barcelona setting is distinctive.

Prisoner of Heaven

Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón  278 pp.

Ruiz Zafón returns to his characters, Daniel Sempere and Fermin Romero de Torres from Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game in this sequel/prequel. It is now 1957 in Barcelona. Daniel is happily married and Fermin is about to be when the appearance of a strange, old, one-armed man causes Fermin to relate the tale of his time in a horrific prison during days following the Spanish Civil War where he meets the author David Martin, whose story was told in The Angel's Game. Daniel and Fermin must return Fermin's true identity and find a way to punish the evil prison governor, Mauricio Valls.

This is the third in Ruiz Zafón's "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" series (although the Cemetery itself is only mentioned briefly). It is the weakest of the three, lacking the depth of the others, but serves to provide some missing parts of the stories of the main characters. I do wonder where a fourth installment would go with the story and I will certainly read it if and when it comes out.

Angel's Game

Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 531 pages.
In Barcelona, young David Martin enters the world of writing by penning sensational serials under an assumed name. Neither writing nor true love come easily to him. The girl he worships marries his mentor. Living in an abandoned mansion, he enters a strange agreement with a reclusive French editor that could make him incredibly wealthy or cost him his sanity.
This is the first novel that I have read by Zafon. I don't want to offend his fans, but he could be the Spanish hermano of Stephen King. Both have written about the art and demands of writing. Both explore troubled childhoods. And both describe dark journeys caused by inner demons.