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▾LibraryThing recommendations

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1980)
Same series: The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books)
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2006)
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones (2000)
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1987)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005)

The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1993)
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1990)
Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom (2006)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (1953)

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▾Member recommendations

217
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (phoenix7g, orange_epsilon)
orange_epsilon: Prequel to The Shadow of the Wind set in Barcelona in the 1920s and 1930s. If you enjoyed the first one, you should give this one a try.
153
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (rmjp518, starfishian, elizabeth.a.coates)
elizabeth.a.coates: Both centre around books/literature, both are eloquently written, both have an element of mystery
165
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (robynlinden, GodOfTheAnthill)
GodOfTheAnthill: Both mystery novels with a similar tone and atmosphere
70
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (derelicious)
71
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (SylviaO)
SylviaO: Another tale about a mysterious book and a reader searching for answers.
60
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (susiesharp, BookshelfMonstrosity)
50
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (guurtjesboekenkast)
40
The Little Book by Selden Edwards (Othemts)
40
The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers (bookmomo)
bookmomo: If you want to read more (and better!) about the love of books and reading
30
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (jhedlund, phoenix7g, Cecilturtle, TAir)
phoenix7g: Mystery and books.
31
The Book on Fire by Keith Miller (infiniteletters)
20
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson (ehines)
10
Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas (caflores)
10
The Calligrapher's Secret by Rafik Schami (spiphany)
10
Stoner by John Williams (vivas)
vivas: Libro excepcional,escrito de forma sencilla,culta y facil de entender
43
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (missmaddie)
32
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell (sweetiegherkin)
sweetiegherkin: The mystery contained in a book is at the heart of both these thrillers.
00
City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza (caflores)
00
Barcelona Amor Final by Joan Margarit (CitizenMarc)
CitizenMarc: If you love the city, both these books bring alive aspects of its character that will evoke fond memories, or intrigue you.
00
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (derelicious)

(see all 26 recommendations)

▾Will you like it?

▾Member reviews

English (512) Dutch (26) Spanish (21) French (17) Italian (13) German (9) Catalan (7) Swedish (4) Finnish (4) Portuguese (3) Portuguese (Portugal) (3) Danish (2) Hungarian (1) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) All languages (623)

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Showing 1-5 of 512 (next | show all)

Thank goodness gothic romance still exists. This novel made me laugh, gasp, chew on my nails, and sigh in satisfaction. Zafon creates beautiful images and entertaining characters, and he didn't leave a single loose end. Very enjoyable. (

)

Snukes | Jun 14, 2013 |

4.5 stars.

I don't even know what to say about this. I don't quite know why it is that I liked it so much.. I just did. It drew me in right from the beginning, and was a great ride. The plot pacing is definitely a little leisurely, but not in a bad way.. It's a 100% character driven novel, so I sort of expected that.

I'm going to leave my review at just this. I really don't know what else to say.. Highly recommended. (

)

breakofdawn | Jun 11, 2013 |

Wow! A friend recommended this book to me. It had a most intriguing storyline. (

)

clinec1 | Jun 10, 2013 |

A gorgeous, gothic romance, full of mystery, tragedy, political intrigue, and just a smidge of magic One of the best books I've read in years. (

)

dgmillo | Jun 2, 2013 |

Wow, a rather amazing book! It took me a long time to read, though, as portions of the story were pretty dark, so I put it aside periodically for lighter reading. The story comes together in fascinating and sometimes unexpected ways. I highly recommend it! (

)

dukefan86 | May 29, 2013 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 512 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

2 reviews

add a review

thingScore 100

It's lowdown and lazy, but here goes: ''Gabriel García Márquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges'' for a sprawling magic show, exasperatingly tricky and mostly wonderful, by the Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The three illustrious meeters must surely have been drinking and they weave about a little, but steady remarkably as the pages go by.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Richard Eder (Apr 25, 2004)

The Shadow of the Wind is a dream date for those who love books.... For fans of Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco and other writers who craft twisting and turning plots with complex characterization, The Shadow of the Wind is not to be missed.

added by funkendub | editCurled Up with a Good Book, Brian Charles Clark

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (42 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos	Contributor	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Geel, Nelleke	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Geel, Nelleke	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Graves, Lucia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Härkönen, Tarja	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sezzi, Lia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Work-to-work relationships

Has the (non-series) sequel

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

view history

▾Common Knowledge

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For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Series (with order)

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books (1)

Canonical title

The Shadow of the Wind

Original title

La sombra del viento

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2001

People/Characters

Daniel Sempere (main character; narrator)

Important places

Cemetery of Forgotten Books (Fictional)

France

(show all 6 items)

Important events

Spanish Civil War ( [1936, 1939])

Spanish State ( [1939, 1947])

Related movies

Awards and honors

Waterstones top 25 books of the last 25 years (2007, No 6)

Barry Award (First Novel, 2005)

Gumshoe Award nominee (European Crime Novel, 2005)

Meilleur livre étranger (Roman, 2004)

Libraires du Québec (Lauréat Roman hors Québéc, 2005)

(show all 8 items)

Epigraph

Dedication

For Joan Ramón Planas,
who deserves better

First words

I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.

Quotations

Sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.

Paris requires more than two days. It won't listen to reason.

Age -- the price we all must pay.

Army, Marriage, the Church, and Banking: the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse.

"Every book, every volume you see here has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it."

His mouth was glued to a half-smoked cigar that seemed to grow out of his mustache. It was hard to tell whether he was asleep or awake, because he breathed like most people snore.

When a library disappears, or a book shop closes down, when a book is cosigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been someone's best friend. Now they have only us, Daniel.

"[W]e exist as long as somebody remembers us."

(show all 12 items)

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

King, Stephen

Publisher series

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

The Shadow of the Wind

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0143034901, Paperback)

"Gabriel García Márquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges for a sprawling magic show." --The New York Times Book Review

A New York Times Bestseller

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

“ Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really, you should.” --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"Wonderous... masterful... The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero." --Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)

"One gorgeous read." --Stephen King

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:37:29 -0500)

(see all 3 descriptions)

▾Library descriptions

A boy named Daniel selects a novel from a library of rare books, enjoying it so much that he searches for the rest of the author's works, only to discover that someone is destroying every book the author has ever written.

» see all 15 descriptions