Mark Robson
Dragon Writer
A young boy wakes crying in the night because he can no longer remember his dead mother's face. To help distract his son, the father decides to let the boy in on a very special secret. He takes him to the Cemetary of Forgotten Books, a huge labyrinth of bookshelves in the city of Barcelona that houses no end of treasures in literary form.
The father tells his son that he can choose one book to take home with him, and that this book will always have a special place in his heart. He chooses a book called Shadow of the Wind and nothing is ever the same again. Having read the book and fallen in love with the Author's writing style, the boy begins a search to find more by the same writer, a little known writer called Julian Carax. Mystery upon mystery abound, as it becomes clear that someone has been burning everything this obscure writer has ever written.
Strange characters from the novel begin to take on human form, including the devil himself. What is going on? Why does the boy's life seem to be mirroring events from the book he has read and what is the author's dark secret?
This is a stunning first novel by Carlos Ruis Zafon. It deserves every plaudit in the long list that abound around its covers and title pages. I was completely mesmorized by it, despite the fact that I would never normally even pick this sort of novel off the shelf. It is a masterpiece that will surely become a classic of our time. Totally readable. Rich in language, both fair and foul.
A huge thumbs up.
The father tells his son that he can choose one book to take home with him, and that this book will always have a special place in his heart. He chooses a book called Shadow of the Wind and nothing is ever the same again. Having read the book and fallen in love with the Author's writing style, the boy begins a search to find more by the same writer, a little known writer called Julian Carax. Mystery upon mystery abound, as it becomes clear that someone has been burning everything this obscure writer has ever written.
Strange characters from the novel begin to take on human form, including the devil himself. What is going on? Why does the boy's life seem to be mirroring events from the book he has read and what is the author's dark secret?
This is a stunning first novel by Carlos Ruis Zafon. It deserves every plaudit in the long list that abound around its covers and title pages. I was completely mesmorized by it, despite the fact that I would never normally even pick this sort of novel off the shelf. It is a masterpiece that will surely become a classic of our time. Totally readable. Rich in language, both fair and foul.
A huge thumbs up.
